FOUR KILLED IN EXPLOSION (BACK PAGE, AUGUST 25, 2010)

FOUR persons lost their lives while 70 others got injured when an oil tanker, ‘MT 7 Seas,’ from which they were siphoning fuel, exploded at the Tema Newtown beach.
One of the deceased, identified as Mensah Ozigi, 27, was among a group of over 200 youths from the Manhean community who went and vandalised the vessel belonging to Sugian Senkuo Industrial Ghana limited.
Three persons, Gilbert Kpodivia, an employee of the Ghana Ports and Habours Authority, Seth ‘Abisma’ Amegashie, unemployed, and Emmanuel Boye Abbey, are being held by the Tema Police to assist in investigations. Kpodovia, according to police sources, was said to have confessed organising the youth involved in the raid.
A resident, Mr Nani Ahovi, told this reporter that the incident, which occurred at 7 p.m. on August 14, 2010, saw the entire community in turmoil as residents close to the seaside where the vessel was abandoned fled in various directions in an attempt to save their lives.
The acting Public Relations Manager of the Tema Port, Ms Serwa Owusu Acheampong, told the Daily Graphic that the dumping of the vessel at the beach by the GPHA was to avoid it sinking into the navigational areas of the port after it was involved in an accident with a cargo vessel on August 13, this year.
She stated that the vessel, which was said to have originated from Phnom Penn, Cambodia, was believed to have been on anchorage since November 15, 2008 with a gross tonnage of 2993 and had been poorly manned without any form of lighting thereby posing danger to other users of the port.
“Therefore, when the GPHA was informed about the incident and the subsequent inflow of water into the facility, officials moved in as a matter of urgency to tow it away to avert further inconvenience it may have created for both outgoing and incoming vessels,” Ms Owusu Acheampong noted.
The Tema Regional Police Commander, ACP Augustine Gyening, briefing the Daily Graphic on the incident, said the police were yet to retrieve the bodies of the deceased which were reported to have been burnt.
He said the three suspects who were currently in police custody would be put before court immediately investigations were over.