Distressed ex-GPHA workers urged to shun armed robbery

Ex-workers of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) whose severance awards are yet to be paid, have been advised to shun armed robbery and other vices in their struggle to survive.

At a meeting in Tema, Mr. Stephen Ashitey-Adjei, leader of the group, said although the temptation to steal to feed, clothe and console their wives and children was real, they should remember that crime only paid in the short term.

Only five of the workers, who were retrenched in 2002, he said, had received their benefits so far.

Mr Ashitey-Adjei, who is popularly known as Mo-shake, asked the ex-workers not to give up their fight for justice through legal means, which seemed to have eluded them since 2002, he said, because of political expediency.

He appealed to President John Mahama to treat the grievances of the ex-workers of GPHA with the dispatch and efficiency as he would have done with the affairs of Ministers, Members of Parliament and other Article 71 office holders.

“We always look up to the President to solve this nagging problem, which has destroyed many men, women and children; we hope that the President would ask the Ministry of Transport and GPHA to pay us what is due us,” he stated

About 500 out of the more than 3000 workers who were retrenched at GPHA in 2002 had lost their lives, he said.