Resign – Harbour workers to Transport Minister

The Chief Steward of the Workers Union of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), Mr Emmanuel Arhin Young, is mounting pressure on Transport Minister Kweku Ofori Asiamah to resign from office.

According to him, the minister’s attitude regarding the Meridian Ports Services (MPS) agreement will not benefit the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, hence he must vacate the office.

In an interview with Class91.3FM, Mr Young said the minister has been dragging his feet on the matter ever since a report by the Economic Management Team suggested a review of the concession agreement.

Mr Young, therefore, called on the authorities to, as a matter of urgency, issue a white paper on the Technical Committee’s review document to save GPHA from being liquidated.

“If you look at the whole deal, it is very bad,” he said, adding: “When GPS starts operations, GPHA for one or two months is going to collapse or [be] liquidated”.

He questioned why the minister has delayed in reviewing the project and concluded that “he [minister] is not ready to review anything”, hence their calls for the resignation.

Meanwhile, the workers’ representative on the GPHA Board, Mr Samuel Arhin, thinks otherwise. According to him, sacking the Transport Minister is not the way to go. He said they will continue with their silent protest as they await a directive from the Maritime and Dock Workers Union on the next line of action.

“We haven’t said he should be sacked, what we have told him is that the best thing for him to do as our minister is to take steps to review the concession agreement,” he revealed.

Former President John Mahama launched the Port Expansion Project in 2016.

The project is a public-private partnership between the GPHA and MPS for an expansion of Ghana’s main seaport.

The port is expected to be the largest cargo port in West Africa, and one of the best in Africa, with a capacity of 3.5 million 20-foot equivalent unit (TEU) per annum.

Due to the semi-automated nature of the new terminal, some manual jobs and offices are expected to be collapsed.