The Ghana National Petroleum Drivers Union and the Gas Tanker Drivers Union declared an indefinite sit down industrial action nationwide yesterday.
It claimed that the strike was necessary due to the unmotorable nature of their roads from the GTP roundabout at Community 4 in Tema, in the Greater Accra Region, linking the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) through heavy industrial area to Kpone, capital of Kpone KatamansoDistrict.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghanaian Times yesterday, Mr Raymond Aflo, secretary of the Ghana National Petroleum Drivers Union stated that the strike will be effective until government fixed the road.
“The road has become impassable and creates a risk to our drivers, the road served eight terminal depots and over 3,500 tankers ply these routes to supply the country’s petroleum and Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG).
“Vehicles including LPG trucks meander through hug potholes on this road,” he lamented.
“Last month a tanker loaded with petrol fell on its side and we had to call in the TOR emergency team, if it were an LPG truck that had this accident could we imagine the disaster it would have caused to the entire industrial enclave including TOR pipelines, the Asogli and Asaa power plants,” he stated.
MrAflo stated that, there was a need for government to pay special attention to the said road due to its strategic and security nature.
He added that, TOR and its human resource were significant to the nation’s development and cannot be toyed with at the expense of political expediency.
“It took few months to construct roads, whenever there are by-elections in constituencies, why can’t government construct roads of strategic importance.”
He told the Ghanaian Times that there have been numerous appeals including letters and petitions to the Ministry of Roads and Highways, including personal interactions with the sector minister, Mr Kwasi Amoako-Attah.
“In 2020, government cut the sod for the reconstruction of the road, till now nothing has happened, we only received unfilled promises,” he stated
FROM IAN MOTEY, TEMA
