Ada: Idle vessel still aground despite security concerns

The suspicious vessel abandoned at a rural community in the Ada East district is still aground a week after the Ghana Navy raised security concerns.

Residents of Akplagbanya had raised fears over the situation, prompting the navy to alert national security but the vessel remains docked.

Flag Officer Fleet of the Ghana Navy Commodore Mark Yawson told Class News a breakdown in the flow of effective communication is to blame for the lack of action.

“All vessels have an IMO number and they also have the vessel identification so that we are able to track them,” he explained.

“In our naval base, we can track any vessel entering our waters. The thing is that the person can switch off that identification system and we cannot track. Sometimes you can get vessels that can stray into our waters but we all depend on information sharing along the ECOWAS waters.

“Even some of them can paint their names off, they can put different numbers off….a similar incident has occurred….so that is the problem we are having…..but based upon intelligence we can trail and we will work with the international organisations (USA, UK)… they give us information about suspicious vessels.”