Ghana's Navy acquires ship

GNS Anzone, one of four ships acquired by the Ghana Navy from the United States has arrived at the Takoradi Naval Base.

In a ceremony to welcome the ship on Thursday, Rear Admiral J. K. Gbenah, Chief of Naval Staff, in a speech read for him by Commodore Slim Odoom of the Navy Headquarters, said the Navy was going to increase its surveillance at sea to significantly reduce poaching of marine resources, smuggling and save life and property.

He said the purchase of the four new ships for the Navy by the government would place it in a better position to carry out its surveillance duties at sea.

The Navy had been finding it difficult to keep surveillance of its domestic area of operation and meet its responsibility under the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention because it had only four patrol boats.

As a result of this, poachers and economic saboteurs have had a field day, he said.

Rear Admiral Gbenah said it was to stem this tide of economic plunder and to enhance the utility of the Navy that the government secured the four additional ships.

He said Ghana Navy had not been given new ships or patrol boats for the past 20 years, adding that the three other ships would arrive by the end of the year.

Rear Admiral Gbenah said this investment in the Navy would result in direct generation of wealth for the country through the fines that poachers, who are caught would pay.