UPSA Students Commend SEL Fuel Station Over Safety Measures

Some students of the University of Professional Students have expressed satisfaction with the safety measures outlined by managers of the Strategic Energies Limited.

‘We are happy that the managers of the Strategic Energies Limited have installed modern safety equipment at the premises to avoid accidents in the event of any explosion’ one of the students told this reporter.

Strategic Energies Limited (SEL),one of the growing and customer oriented Oil Marketing Companies has adopted and enforced internationally approved standards in the design and construction of their UPSA filling station.

According to managers of Strategic Energies Limited, premises of Petroleum retail outlets are classified as hazardous environments and to prevent hazards associated with it measures are put in place to prevent incidents.

Contrary to reports making news that the fuel station located close to UPSA is a death trap, it has been revealed that the Oil Marketing Company has installed modern safety equipment at the premises. This is to avoid accidents in the event of any explosion.

A fire hydrant has also been constructed to benefit the community and its environs.

‘The fuel station has all the approved documents from the government agencies including Ghana Fire Service, EPA & NPA’ managers of Strategic Energies Limited pointed out

They explained that there are international bodies such as Petroleum Equipment Institute (PEI), Association for Petroleum and Explosives Administration (APEA), OIML that set and train on safety standards to regulate the construction and operation of fuel retail stations.

The facility installed by Strategic Energies Limited aims at ensuring the safety of consumers who purchase petroleum products at SEL retail outlets.

It was revealed that Universal Petroleum Pipe (UPP) was installed to channel product from the Tank to the Dispensers.

‘We can state authoritatively that the UPP pipe used is UL971 approved for petroleum product piping and are made up of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE). The piping system has Zero leak paths’ officials of the station revealed.

It was further revealed that the UPP double wall is a type of UPP pipe used for product line connections from the UST (Underground Storage Tanks) to the inlet pipe of the Fuel dispenser. This ensured a direct bury or retrofit solution for product, vapour and vent piping to achieve secondary containment protection. This semi-rigid pipe system is flexible enough to bend on site without the need for elbow joints which prevents any possible leaks.

Touching on UST water and air tight application, ‘Tank Sumps and Entry booths are installed at SEL UPSA filling station as secondary containments to prevent water entering the tank and displacing the product to the surface causing spillage’ officials stated.

In addition, emergency line shut, shear valves are installed at all pipe termination under each dispenser. This valve together with the Hose breakaway valves prevents uncontrolled product oozing in the unlikely event of a seismic activity or fire outbreak. Flame Arresters are fitted on all UST vent pipes’ thenewsplatforms.com gathered.

Sacked Dome-Kwabenya NPP Women Organizer Joins Biakoye DCE Race

… Party Executives Kick Angry

The disqualified Women Organizer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the Dome Kwabenya Constituency who was removed from that position over fraud and forgery of Electoral Commission (EC) documents, is contesting the DCE position in Biakoye District of the Volta Region to the displeasure of many party members, executives and supporters.

A High Court in February 2010, upheld an application filed against Comfort Atta by party executives in Dome-Kwabenya and ordered for her removal from office when it was established that, she deceived EC officials with documents she forged claiming she was a transferred voter in 2008 into the constituency.

Comfort Atta, whose conduct in that executive election, created tension, division and disaffection within the party front in that constituency has succeed in dividing the NPP in the Boakoye District ever since she returned to the area and begun engaging in their party politics.

Party executives in the believed that her coming to the area was to continuously divide the rank and file of the party since she had been suspected to be an NDC figure who was planted within the NPP to cause mayhem, total disaffection and cause the defeat of the party in the past elections which even though she failed to accomplished, is doing everything possible to identify NPP strongholds and destroy.

According to information gathered from the Biakoye District, party executives are strongly opposed to a person of such caliber to assume a very important position of a DCE.

They believed that Ms. Comfort Attah was not a member of NPP Dome-Kwabenya and suddenly joined the 2008 elections.

Her decision to contest the Dome Kwabenya executive election was greeted with heavy challenge as a contestant for the Women's Organizer position because she was not a voter in the constituency.It however emerged that during vetting stage, the then Regional officer in charge upheld the position taken by party executives that she was not a voter and hence cannot contest such position in the party.

Because of her entrenched stance to become the Women Organiser of the party, she succeeded in providing false documents supposedly from the Electoral Commission, and deceived the Elections Committee and EC officials that she was a transferred voter in the 2008 elections.

The document allowed her to stand and she won the election at the end.

Meanwhile, the executives took the fight further to court where it was upheld that documents she presented for which she contested and won the election was fraudulent and forged, hence her position as the Women Organiser of the NPP in Dome Kwabenya was nullified leading to her eventual removal from that position.

It was also established that, her name was not in any transfer voter list and there was also no Transferred Voters List for Dome-Kwabenya for the 2008 elections.

Indeed no transfers were made within Greater Accra from one constituency to another for the elections. It was only done from one Region to another, this paper has gathered, as against her claims in 2008.

Comfort Atta, according to our information, run to Biakoye where she hails from, and cunningly made her way into the party politics.

Interesting signals being received from the Biakoye District are pointing to a possible party collapse should Comfort Attah be allowed to contest and assume the position as the DCE since she had already left such footprints in Dome Kwabenya where she claimed ‘attacks’ on her position there was launched by Nana Akufo-Addo faction, when indeed in 2008, there was nothing like Allan-Akufo-Addo factions within the NPP.

The executives of the NPP in Biakoye are however standing in one accord and in unison against her candidature for the DCE position and are calling for her name to be withdrawn from the list.

They indicated that, her name appearing on the list could spell doom for the party and damage the reputation of the party, since her character is questionable and fraught with fraud and illegalities.

“She does not qualify to be a Women Organiser of the party; hence she was disqualified due to her fraudulent conducts and should have even been in jail by now. Forging EC documents is a serious Criminal offence. We do not think such a person can be trusted with such an office like that of the DCE,” an executive indicated.

However, all attempts to get her response proved futile as calls and text messages place on her mobile phone remain unanswered.