The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Tema, Yohane Armah Ashitey says a five-member fact-finding committee has been formed to provide a report on the death of the two fishermen in Tema in the next seven days.
Speaking in an interview with Umaru Sanda Amadu on Eyewitness News on Citi FM on Thursday, he said that the conflicting narratives from the stakeholders involved necessitated the constitution of the committee.
“Information taken from all the key stakeholders were conflicting information… Interrogating all of them, there were a lot of discrepancies in the narrations that came. And so because of that, we deemed it necessary to form our independent fact-finding committee.”
“The five-member committee involve NIB, CID, NADMO, Fire and Assembly Council. And then they have a seven days period so that we can have a report to really understand what exactly happened that led to the unfortunate demise of the two fishermen,” Mr Ashitey said.
Meanwhile, the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Tema East Constituency, Isaac Ashai Odamtten has called for a probe into the case.
But the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) has urged the public to disregard media reports related to an alleged encounter between a GPHA Boat and a Fishing Boat on Thursday, July 27, 2023, which reportedly resulted in the unfortunate death of two fishermen.
In the statement signed and issued by Abena Serwaa Opoku Fosu, the Marketing and Public Affairs Manager of GPHA, the authority clarified that there was no collision between the Security Patrol Boat and any fishing boat.
Instead, the incident involved the Port Control Station receiving a distress call on Wednesday, July 26, 2023, at approximately 0030HRS from MV. SEASPAN DUBAI. The distress call was for assistance to ward off several fishing boats that had surrounded their vessel.
The GPHA emphatically stated that there was no direct contact or collision between the GPHA Boat and the fishing boat in question. The statement added that the unfortunate death of the two fishermen was not caused by any actions involving the GPHA.
