Tema Port workers protest death of colleague

Some workers of the Tema Port on Friday evening protested the death of their colleague which occurred in an accident.

The incident led to chaos at the Transit Yard  Depot 10, popularly called Burkina Yard of the Tema Harbour, and police personnel fired rubber bullets to disperse the angry crowd.

Although no further casualty was recorded, some of the protesters sustained injuries from the rubber bullets.

According to reports, the deceased fell and landed on his head while working on a container and died instantly.

The workers, the report noted, were agitated by the lack of response to several calls for an ambulance to covey the body to the mortuary.

A worker told the media that they protested because management of the port had failed to provide a standby ambulance for immediate response to accidents that might occur at the yard due to the high risk involved in the work there.

“That section is a thin line between life and death, and there must be an ambulance parked 24/7 so that when an incidents like this happen, the ambulance can convey the person.

“We’ve talked about this issue (about ambulance) but all fell on deaf ears. The workers are angry because the ambulance didn’t show up,” he said.

The armed police personnel who came into the yard, an eyewitness said, began firing into the protestors.

 “Management called for police, and when they came, they shot into the crowd. They were about six officers. They were shooting directly at the crowd. One person had his eye shot and the other, the back”, the eyewitness stated.

Some armed military personnel were deployed to the scene to help restore calm and protect the port and its infrastructure.

BY TIMES REPORTER