Alban Bagbin is full of wisdom - GPHA former workers

The over four thousand former workers of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority who were retrenched in 2002 without their severance benefits have hailed Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin after the Speaker indicted stakeholders of Ghana’s electoral management and demanded that the right thing be done.

Pointing out that what is happening with the country’s electoral management is akin to the injustice that they, the ex-workers, have suffered at the hands of officials of the state, the leadership of the ex-workers said the Speaker’s bold call oozes with wisdom.

“Speaker Alban Bagbin spoke wisdom on this occasion, just as he has always done because he is full of wisdom,” Stephen Ashitey Adjei said.

According to the man popularly called Moshake, “If such a voice had been heeded in 2002, then the injustice that was and is still being inflicted on us would not have happened and everybody would be at peace.”

The former GPHA workers are particularly fond of Bagbin because he is one of the very few people who have fought for them to be paid.

The Speaker had recently been commenting on the conduct of the Electoral Commission in the build-up to the December 2024 elections in an interview with Accra-based TV3, when he warned that Ghana is playing with fire in reaction to inflammatory statements by some members of the Electoral Commission.

Alban Bagbin, while accusing the government of being meddlesome in the affairs of the EC, also chastised the EC itself for not making trustworthy preparations for the 2024 elections.

The Speaker also expressed unhappiness about the impasse over the Ada Songhor Lagoon, which the government has given out to one company, Electrochem, to the neglect of the rest of the community, which has been relying on the salt lagoon for income for ages.

According to Moshake, what the Speaker has observed is the unfortunate attitude of officials whose carelessness and lack of commitment to accountability have brought affliction to many, including the over 4,000 ex-workers of the GPHA.

“This same attitude that the Rt. Honourable Speaker talks about is what has resulted in just five out of the over four thousand of us being paid our rightfully earned severance benefits. This is why we say that the Speaker is a wise man,” Moshake said.

He added that the call by the Speaker for Ghanaians to do the right thing should be treated by all duty bearers in Ghana as clarion calls on them.

“In this regard, I will especially say it behooves the GPHA to heed it and expedite action on paying us our benefits, which have been delayed for over 20 years,” he added.

Meanwhile, Moshake heaped praise on persons that he said have been trying to help right the wrong that was perpetrated against the ex-workers in 2002, starting with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

“We always ask for blessings for His Excellency President Nana Akufo-Addo for the order he issued last year to the GPHA to pay us. We are also very appreciative of the late former President Mills, who issued a fiat for us to be paid in July 2012. And of course, we count as our best ally, the Rt. Hon. Speaker of Parliament, A.S.K. Bagbin, for helping us on our journey for justice since 2002.”

On his part, Daniel Baccah, one of the former workers, expressed annoyance with former President John Dramani Mahama, who abandoned the process after Atta Mills issued the fiat in 2012 for them to be paid but died in office, leaving Mahama in charge of the process.