Soldiers stop Ghana Gas workers' demonstration

Men of the Ghana Armed Forces have stopped a demonstration by over 100 Ghanaian workers of the Ghana Gas Processing plant at Atuabo in the Western region.

Joy News' Kwaku Owusu Peprah said the workers, who were staging a demonstration Friday morning to register their anger and force the management of Ghana Gas to fix the fire safety issues at the plant were forced to abandon their demonstration.

According to the workers, the least spark of fire at the processing plant could spell disaster for Ghana as the fire safety system at the strategic installation have been seriously compromised.

The Military were called in by management to stop the demonstrators from entering the plant.

Engineers at the Plant tell Joy News' Kwaku Owusu Peprah that the fire extinguishers at the billion dollar facility have expired for the past eight months.

Besides, the mobile fire extinguishers, the highly sophisticated deluge valve system which is supposed to serve as the first response to fire has failed to trigger at several safety drills.

The safety officers at the plant have therefore declared the system as being out of order and cannot caution workers who operate within the plant in case of a fire incident.

"You won't believe but this is a plant that has fire extinguishers that have expired for more than eight months and when engineers took a drastic action by bringing them out they were given queries and stuff. This is how the $1 billion plant is being managed," he said.

"We have a very high level of inefficiency in the management system of Ghana Gas," he added.

One of the workers who spoke to Joy News said with gas plants considered one of the most explosive plants in the world, the situation cannot be permitted to persist.

The workers further claim that the skills transfer programme in the contracted which demands that the Sinopec engineers train the Ghanaian counterparts to take over the engineering and mechanical management of the plant have not been followed.

PRO of Ghana Gas, Alfred Ogbame, has however dismissed the concerns of the workers.

He discounted reports that the demonstration was stopped by the military, insisting that the demonstrators failed to get the required turnout for their demonstration.

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Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Abubakar Ibrahim | Email: [email protected]