Akyem Kwae Residents Demontrates Against Ghana Oil Company

The entire community of Kwae in the Kwaebibirem district demonstrated against Ghana Oil Palm Development Company (GOPDC) on Monday 21st September for a ditch created around the town which did not have the community's concernt. The public relations officer of the community, Ernest Owusu Boakye confirmed to the media that, nobody gave them the order to create the trench. "They didn't consult the chief nor any elder in the community before creating the ditch" he said. They were asked to cover it but nothing has been done about till now. The Assembly man of the community Fredrick Osei raised a lot of problems these created ditches could bring to the community, stating that, the trench serves as a death trap to children and the workers. "A time will come all the ditch will be covered by weeds and a worker who is unaware may fall into it. Children normally play in their various houses and the landscape near the bus stop leading to Kwae gate is also a right factor." He added that students normally have recreational activities at the JHS School, when students are playing football on the School pitch, the ball is sometimes played inside the trench which requires efforts of people to get it. "Everybody is at risk" he ended. Barima Kwame Bomfi III is the chief of the town, he said it is a taboo to eat the fish in the river (Bobire). Because the trench is closer to the river some of the fishes have started entering the ditch but the most dangerous aspect is that children can catch some of the fish and even the fish have lost their natural habitat. Obaapayin Afua Akyeamaa the Queenmother of the community thinks the created ditch can produce mosquitoes after a downpour in the community and malaria could take over the whole community. They entreat the company to provide mitigations to these trenches as a result of the issues raised above. When journalists contacted the P.R.O of the company Ahaji Bahir Manu he admitted the authenticity of the story but quickly rebutted that the created ditches were done under the permission of the Chief and elders. "We created those ditches to guard our palm from thieves because we noticed people go into it with cars to steal our palm nut". He added that those trenches are not created in Kwae only "We've done same at various villages like Anweamu, Asuom, Atobriso, James town etc when we noticed people were stealing our palm nut. Bashir said "We didn't create the trench to kill people, almost half of the population in the community work with GOPDC, so how can we kill our own workers", he questioned. He lamented that anyone who has fallen into the trench should come with a proof and the company will take care full responsibility of it.