The Maritime and Dockworkers’ Union (MDU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has condemned government’s decision to allow the construction of a free port in the country, as it will facilitate the influx of foreign companies to scramble for the national coastline.

This, according to the Union, will strip Ghana’s territorial waters of its legal protection, compromise national security, and put a “national security zone” into the hands of foreigners.

“Imagine our nation with port facilities owned by foreign companies littered along our coastline; that is where we are heading to, because the Atuabo Free Port is only the beginning of the journey to total liberalisation of the maritime sector -- which will have grave consequences for our nation.

“Ports are strategic assets that have to be controlled by the state; we cannot be a sovereign nation if we do not have control of our coastlines and ports,” Executive Director of the Union, Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, told the B&FT in an interview.

Mr. Koranteng said the project contradicts the existing PNDC Law L.I 160, which gives exclusive rights to the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) as the state institution tasked with the responsibility to build, operate, manage and maintain the nation’s seaports.

“The Atuabo Free Port project is an illegality in its entirety, as it violates the laws of this country. The Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority is shielded by the PNDC Law L.I 160 as the only State entity tasked to build, operate, manage and maintain the country’s seaports.

“As a Union, we are also aware that a port is a national security area, and for that reason it must not be entrusted into the hands of foreigners as that would be against the interest of national security and sovereignty.”

Parliament, on July 17, 2014, ratified the commercial agreement between the Government of Ghana, Lonrho Ports Ghana Limited and Atuabo Free Port Company Limited, paving the way for facilitation of the Ghana Oil and Gas Free Port Project.

The project is scheduled to start by the second quarter of this year, and is expected to be fully operational in 2016 to meet the logistical requirements of the country’s oil and gas industry.

It involves the construction of an airstrip and a helipad to facilitate aircraft and helicopter transportation and other service facilities to be located on the quays along the port to provide support services to the off-shore oil and gas industry.

But the project has come under severe scrutiny from concerned parties in the country’s blue economy, due largely to an exclusivity clause that restricts the business of oil and gas in the region to Lonrho Ports Limited, which the parties argue will not be in the interest of the country -- particularly the GPHA.

Five Members of Parliament from the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) took legal action against implementation of the project, but their application was thrown out as the State-Attorney, Patience Klinogo, who sat on the case submitted that the court did not have the jurisdiction to hear the matter since it was a decision taken by parliament -- and that the five MPs exercised bad faith since they were part of the decision-making.

But operator of the port, Atuabo Free Port (AFP), earlier this month signed a construction agreement with China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) establishing the latter as the main contractor for the free port project.

Construction work is expected to commence by the end of 2015 and more than 1,000 jobs will be created directly by the project.