BOST CEO must step aside - Kwesi Pratt

The Chief Executive Officer of Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) Company Limited, Alfred Obeng, must step down for investigations to be conducted into the alleged sale of contaminated fuel to consumers, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, Managing Editor of the Insight, has said.

According to him, stepping aside would not imply Mr Obeng is guilty of wrongdoing but will only allow for due investigations to be carried out.

The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers, Ghana (COPEC-GH) has warned the public to beware of the sale of contaminated fuel on the market. The group has also accused the Managing Director of BOST of allowing his “greed” to make him act “recklessly” by allowing the contaminated fuel to be sold onto the market.

According to COPEC-GH, about five million litres of the contaminated fuel have flooded the market and are being sold at the pumps.

In a press release, the Research, Pricing and Monitoring Officer at COPEC-GH, Mr Samson Addae, said: “One would have thought a company like BOST will at all times work with the public interest as the primary objective, but the selfish interests and greed of some management persons including the MD seem to have taken the best part in this cruel transaction without any proper prior or post sale and discharge impact assessment done.”

COPEC-GH is demanding that any fuel station found selling the contaminated fuel be arrested and prosecuted.

The group has also urged the regulatory authorities to come down hard on the BOST MD, his “cronies” and “other highly compromised management members” so as to “forestall any further dangerous recklessness”.

Adding his voice to this development while speaking on Peace FM’s Kokrokoo on Tuesday, June 27, Mr. Pratt said: “I support calls for him to step aside for investigations to be conducted into the matter. A lot of people want him to step aside for investigations to be conducted and after the investigations, depending on the findings, he would be reinstated or be sacked.

“We need to make sure that he faces the law, that is if he has been found to have engaged in wrongdoing. But as we speak today he has not been found to have engaged in any illegality.”