From The Concerned Citizens of Tema

PRESS STATEMENT: RAISING RED FLAGS ON THE ATTEMPTS TO EXPROPRIATE A PARCEL OF LAND AT THE EXPENSE OF OUR FISHING INDUSTRY FOR OIL PALM EXPORTATION BY THE CONCERNED CITIZENS OF TEMA IN CONJUCTION WITH THE FISHMONGERS AND THE FISHERFOLKS OF THE TEMA FISHING HABOUR

The Concerned Citizens of Tema wishes to express its utmost dismay at the continued insensitivity to the grave importance and plight of the fishers plying their profession in the Tema Fishing harbor by various governmental agencies.

Good People of Ghana, we residents of Tema like everyone else as per the dictates of the unenforceable Article 36(4) of the constitution encourage and support every local and foreign direct investment aimed at a better Ghana but will emphatically do everything legally enshrined to discourage and refuse any genus of investment that will not be beneficial to the greater mass of the people.

Discerning Ghanaians permit us the opportunity to share with you the intricacies of our concerns.

Well as part of efforts to attract foreign investments, government has succeeded in wooing a Malaysian conglomerate Wilmar Afria to operate in Ghana which has successfully secured a large stake in the Benso Oil Palm Plantations and the company is hoping to construct silo’s to ease it’s operations of transporting oil palm to it’s client Unilever Ghana on a parcel of land situated east of the confluence of the already bedeviled Chemu Lagoon and the sea.

Our humbly beef basically has nothing to do with the investment potentials of WILMAR but our grouse is of the land cited for the silo construction. This land has from the memorial moments of our dreadful migration; served as a site where all extra fishing related activities—net mending, canoe maintenance, fish preservation and training among others takes place. Furthermore, this location serves as the only water recreational site for the people of Tema Manhean and it host the annual canoe racing and regatta festival. More importantly this site is a sacred site that hosts a community shrine where rites of passages are carried out in homage to ancestry and other sacrosanct rudiments for the venerated Homowo Festival.

We the Concerned Citizens of Tema will also want to rebut the cheap and vile propaganda that this purported silo construction will create some 1,000 jobs to indigenes of our community, it is very preposterous to heed and even aside the fallacy, not only will this silo construction project displace and deprive 6,000 already pitiable Ghanaians irking for a living in the fishing area of their livelihood but this will pose a precarious threat to our fishing sector.

Furthermore, we will not want to join the already enraged sections of Ghanaians who are complaining about worsening traffic situation in the country and will also not risk deteriorating our newly constructed road network which is our only road link to the remaining road network of Ghana, bearing in mind the recklessness and congestion tanker vehicles and land trains pose to road carnage at the event of transporting the oil palm and their introduction on our roads.

We have to reiterate that we the Concerned Citizens of Tema, the Fishmongers Association, the Canoe Owners Association and the fisher folks are in no way against the investments prospects of WILMAR AFRICA but in the interest of the “Ghana First” cliché, it will be beneficial if the operations of WILMAR and its divisional entities across their operational scope are probed and analyzed if their exploits will be of gains to the good people of Ghana

We further commend the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) for their efforts to rid the catchments of its emerging slum. In the Tema Metropolitan’s Assembly flawed fiat issued which is distinctively dissimilar to the prescribed notice form as per the Local Government Act 462,1993 section 62, they have given a seven(7) evacuation notice and we urge them to discharge their duties meticulously. However we unassumingly caution that the motive behind this earmarked demolition, be limited for its objectives. Likewise, we remind the assembly or other involved public officials that the constitution frowns on the arbitrarily and capricious use of discretionary powers as per the dictates of article 296 and also if the TMA’s intention is aimed at creeping expropriation then we via this medium civilly plead with them reflect their actions which should be guided within the confines of the law and act conscientiously.

Finally, the cited land is vested in the administration of the Tema Traditional Council authoritatively, dealing with any phony persons either posing as chief of Tema or its bonafiade in transacting the said land is void and the personalities involved do so at their own willing risk. It is worth knowing that the Concerned Citizens in conjuction with the fishmongers and the fisherfolks humbly repudiate our actions from earlier intiatives by the Corporate Social Responsibility Movement (CSRM). We humbly say we disassociate our activities from the CSRM and further state that we are distinct in our own ways.

We therefore call on all all well meaning Ghanaians who believe in the spirit of true freedom and justice to rise up on this occasion to pursue justice and save us the ensuing predicament.

We are closely monitoring any move aimed at acquiring the land and within the confines of our inalinable constitutional rights we will pursue this matter till the last drop of blood drains from our systems.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we will communicate our counter steps based on any ill steps the government or the entity WILMAR embarks but it is gratifying that our elected government will not address delicate issues confronting Ghanaians since their elevation to power but are greedily pursuing lands for their gains. Come 2012 we will wait to witness lands and WILMAR voting for political mandate. We rest our case!

SPEAKERS:

MICHAEL NII ABBEY - 0244101846

THEOPHILOS KUGBLENU - 0244774895

SOLOMON TETTEH - 0242971988