Elmina, Sept 24, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor will, by the end of October, cut the sod for work to begin on a $16 million fishing harbour at Elmina. Mrs Gladys Asmah, Minister of Fisheries who announced this at Elmina on Tuesday, said funds for the project have been secured by the government and that preparatory works were on-going to facilitate its construction.

She made this known at a "reconciliation meeting" with two factions of fishermen in the town who are in conflict over the sale of premix fuel. Mrs Asmah said a second harbour would be constructed in the town and that both harbours would have standby generators, cold stores, a bank, premix station, clinic, administration block and a day care centre.

Twelve others would also be built throughout the country. The minister assured the fishermen that measures were being taken to halt pair trawling.

The conflict arose when the Chief Fisherman, Mr Jojo Solomon, was alleged to have failed to account for GH¢35,000.00 being profits accrued on the sale of the commodity. Following this an interim management committee was set to manage the sale of the fuel pending investigations into the allegations against Mr Solomon.

There was however a misunderstanding when Mrs Asmah intervened and promised to look into the matter and report back to them within three months but failed to do so. Some of the fishermen who support the Chief Fisherman recently threatened to cause mayhem if the IMC continued to stay in office and also if the findings of the investigations were not made public. The minister advised both factions to unite to foster peace to facilitate development in the area and said the construction of the harbour would boost their operations and help eradicate poverty. Mrs Asmah and her team later met behind closed doors after which it was announced that the Mr Solomon had been made a "co-chairman" of the premix committee alongside the IMC pending the final settlement of the issue.