Keta Port: Withdraw Adusei’s appointment – Volta MPs to Akufo-Addo

Members of Parliament from the Volta Region have described President Akufo-Addo’s appointment of Dr Alexander Y. Adusei Jr as the Director of the yet-to-be-built Keta Port as unnecessary and a willful rape on the country’s meagre resources.

President Akufo-Addo appointed Dr Adusei Jr, a private legal practitioner as the Director for the yet-to-be-constructed Keta Port last month.

In a letter dated 19 March 2019, Transport Minister Kwaku Ofori Asiama instructed the Chairman of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) to “take necessary action to give effect to the appointment.”

But at a press conference Monday, addressed by the MP for Keta Richard Quashigah, the Volta Caucus called for the immediate reversal of the appointment.

“So to appoint a Director for a non-existing seaport at Keta with status as directors of Tema and Takoradi ports is not only preposterous, infuriating, but also an attempt to cause wilful financial loss to the state,” the MP for Keta Richard Quashigah told a news conference on Monday 1 April 2019.

Justifying the caucus’ demand for the withdrawal of Dr Adusei’s appointment, Quashigah observed that there currently are four directors of ports for the two existing functioning ports in the country-Takoradi and Tema and in effect, two of those Directors are redundant.

“If for nothing at all, why wouldn’t the President appoint one of the redundant Directors as the Director for the imaginary Keta port, rather than appointing Dr Adusei bringing the number of Directors of ports to five when only two are needed.

“Perhaps, this novelty is yet another presidential initiative. His appointment is unnecessary and a rape on the resources of the GPHA and for that matter the Ghanaian taxpayer,” Quashigah held.

The government in April last year signed an agreement with Diamond Cement Ghana Limited to begin the construction of a port at Keta in the Volta Region.

The jetty port when completed will see Keta port handle vessels to ease congestion at the Tema and Takoradi Ports and also increase the volume of business in the West Africa sub-region since the facility would be used by other operators.