A worker with the China Harbour Engineering, a sub-contractor handling the ongoing Tema Port Expansion Project is battling with his visibility after a bullet allegedly hit him in the eye when some disgruntled workers of the company clashed with the police on Thursday.
The Operational Commander of the Tema Regional Police Command, DSP Martin Ntelabi also sustained an injury when a missile supposedly thrown by one of the angry workers during the incident landed on his face.
Both injured persons were rushed to the Bethel Hospital at Community 9, Tema for urgent medical attention.
The incident was said to have occurred when some of the Ghanaian workers decided to embark on a strike action to press home improved conditions of service and fair treatment between them and their Chinese counterparts executing similar jobs.
Management of China Harbour Engineering was said to be displeased with the workers action and ordered them to vacate the site.
That, it was alleged, provoked the workers who attacked some of the officers and destroyed some of the company’s properties.
Police personnel who were invited into the area to restore order fired tear gas into the crowd to disperse them while the workers also pelted the police with stones and other objects; compelling the police to fire rubber bullets to fight the situation.
Interestingly, some motorists who ply the beach road that links the Tema harbour to Sakumono had to abandon their vehicles and flee for dear lives upon hearing the gun shots.
It took the intervention of the Deputy Minister of Roads and Transport, Daniel Kwartie Titus-Glover, to calm the tension for a short while but things turned ugly again immediately he left the place.
A leader of the workers who pleaded anonymity explained to DAILY GUIDE that, management in a recent meeting with the leadership of the company, after they had embarked on demonstration, promised to improve their conditions of service by June 19, 2017.
According to him, “As we are speaking now, today is June 22 and we have not heard anything and nor see anything concerning our conditions of service.”
He continued that all attempts to get management speak on the issue had fallen on deaf ears hence their decision to lay down their tools.
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Joseph Obenefo Darkwah, explaining the hullabaloo, indicated that police received a distress call from the company’s management about destruction going on at the site.
According to him, police rushed to the scene and saw some of the workers verbally attacking management of the company with others destroying the company’s properties.
“When we arrived at the place we saw that the workers had smashed one of the company cars so we tried to prevent further damage to the company’s properties.
“Initially we decided to engage the workers in a dialogue to restore order but they wouldn’t budge and started throwing missiles at both management of the company and the police injuring one of us,” he stated.
He admitted that police adopted different tactics to disperse the crowd, saying “We fired tear gas into the crowd to disperse them.”
Asked whether the tear gas could cause injury to the worker, the police officer said “I must admit we also fired rubber bullets and I am sure the rubber bullet caused the injury to the worker.”
He however, denied firing live bullets into the crowd and did not chase the workers into people’s private homes to assault them.
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