FISHERMEN SLAM GNPC (PAGE 34, MIRROR, JAN 23, 2010)

By Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu, Takoradi

Fishermen, fishmongers and canoe owners in the Western Region have slammed the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), for its inability to spearhead the public sensitisation programmes to educate them on oil explorations offshore.
According to the group, the GNPC came to them only twice with GH¢10 and a bottle of Schnapps to the chief fisherman to contract a ‘gongon’ beater to warn the fishermen not to go near the rigs.
This criticisms followed the inability of the representative of the GNPC to express himself on some questions put to him last Tuesday at the community sensitisation forum between Tullow oil and the fishing community in Takoradi.
The fishermen said, “As the government representative in the Tullow Group, we thought GNPC represents our interest and we expect that they play the lead role in educating us on the importance of the operations offshore, but nothing has been done”.
The fishermen said they also heard there would be a gas project in the Jomoro District, adding “it is the foreign investors who made us understand the operations offshore”.
One fisherman from Abuesi in the Shama District, Mr J.K. Ansah, who made the allegation, and cheered on by his colleagues, said but for Tullow and its partners, they would not have understood the offshore operations of the company.
He said the inability of the GNPC to communicate and interact with the people in the fishing communities compounded the problem of intrusion at the rig, which resulted in loss of fishing inputs, lives and the damage to some of their canoes.
“We are always happy to hear that GNPC is coming to our communities, but they come to say or do nothing. We thought they are our people, with our interest at heart, but interestingly, when they came around with a bottle of liquor and GH¢10, their unfriendly posture alone makes us shy away from them,” he said.
The fishermen thanked Tullow Group for its interactions and pledged to be good partners for the good of the country.
Mr Okyeame Ampadu-Agyei, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Manager of Tullow, Ghana, said the company was looking forward to establishing a healthy relations with the fishing communities and the country as a whole.
Okyeame Agyei said one of the things Tullow cherishes so much was the enabling environment for it to triumph and that they were mindful of the fact that socio-industrial harmony was very important to the development of any country.
Mr Kofi Esson, the Government and External Affairs Officer of Tullow, Ghana, responding to some of the concerns of the fishermen, said oil exploration and drilling did not mean the end of fishing.
He said what the company was trying to do was to educate the fishermen on the dangers associated with the activities offshore and the proactive measures that they had in place to handle any eventuality.