THE Tema Police have arrested 11 suspected criminals at separate operations carried out in the metropolis.
Five of the suspects, John Ampabilla, 30; Abibu Ibrahim, 24; Yaw Eric, 26; Kubetesu Martin, 22; and Afua Benewah, 21, were arrested at about 1:45 a.m. last Tuesday morning at the premises of Continental Trading Limited, a subsidiary of the Finatrade Group with 17 bags of sugar each weighing 50 kilogrammes.
The driver of a KIA truck which was used to cart the cargo, while another accomplice, however, managed to escape.
Also arrested was Mohammed Siedu, who bolted with gunshot wounds after a July 14 shoot-out with the police on the Accra-Tema Motorway.
Three persons, Munkaila Yahaya, Issifu Musah and Charles Dikro, who were providing treatment for Seidu at Ashaiman Zongo have, however, been arrested to assist the police in their investigations.
Two other suspects of Nigerian nationality, namely Maxwell King Chizoguzi, 30, and Onuha Otisi, 35, who were arrested at Lashibi, a suburb of Tema, had in their possession two laptops on which several letterheads belonging to different government institutions were found.
The over 20 letterheads with accompanying documents found in their custody were the Republic of Ghana Company Registration Act, Bank of Ghana treasury department and unit letter heads, Ministry of Mines, Ministry of Finance payment schedule, MOFEP monitory unit and cash movement authorisation certificate.
Others included Valued Added Tax (VAT) Service certificate of exemption, Internal Revenue Service, parliamentary identity cards, National Security monitoring unit, a letter purported to have been signed by the Finance Minister, Dr Kwabena Duffour to the Controller and Accountant General, among others.
Also found in their possession was Office of the President letterhead.
Briefing the Daily Graphic at Tema , the Tema Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Augustine Gyening said his outfit had a complaint from Vodafone Ghana Limited of the activities of the two Nigerians who were running a false promotion using a telephone number 0303- 403189 belonging to the network.
According to him, suspects sent out several messages to unsuspecting customers informing them of winning a lottery out of a random selection by the network to reward its loyal clientele.
That, according to ACP Gyening, was a ploy by the two suspects to dupe unsuspecting clients some of whom they had already taken monies from for the processing of a special identification pin to enable them to access their winnings.
The two Nigerians, according to the regional commander, admitted producing the documents in their caution statements after preliminary investigations carried out from the institutions had revealed that they were forged.
He said the 11 suspects would be put before court after investigations.
He appealed to the general public to volunteer information on suspicious activities within their neighbourhoods as the police made strides towards the protection of the citizenry.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
TEMA OIL REFINERY'S RFCC UNIT TO BE OPERATIONAL BY THE END OF THE MONTH
PRODUCTION works is set to resume on the Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracker (RFCC) plant of the Tema Oil Refinery by the end of the month following the arrival of a consulting engineer from Elliot Turbo-Machinery in Europe, manufacturers of the ‘Wet Gas Compressor’, equipment attached to the RFCC plant.
The engineer who has began a kick off meeting with the management of the refinery according to Daily Graphic sources would use a period of about ten days to complete repair works on the equipment.
Acting Managing Director, Dr Kwame Ampofo, who corroborated the information to the Daily Graphic, indicated that, a total of $250,000 would be spent on the repair and maintenance of the equipment.
The plant was shut down early February following damage to the equipment when personnel were in the process of refining parcels of crude oil brought into the country by the Ghana National Petroleum Authority (GNPC) through the government-government arrangement with neighbouring Nigeria.
The shutdown of the facility also saw TOR supplying the consuming public with finished products which were procured for the refinery by Cirrus Energy, Fuel Trade and Sage Commodities.
Dr Ampofo further disclosed that, plans are far advance to replace the burnt loading gantry with automated facilities.
This according to him were parts of stringent safety measures being put in place following the aftermath of the January inferno at the facility that saw two employees losing their lives in the process.
On the shortage of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in the market, he assured the public that the refinery was working hard to repair a leakage that was detected on its sixth pipeline leading to the suspension of the discharge of the product over the weekend.
He also assured of consistent supply of petroleum products to the markets following further arrangement of crude oil supply from its accredited agents for production works.
A statement signed by Ms Aba Lokko, Public Affairs Manager of TOR, said the company acknowledged the present shortage of LPG on the market, but attributed the situation to some technical difficulties resulting from the fire outbreak on January 19, 2010.
It noted that the incident also coincided with a major maintenance being carried out on the Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracker (RFCC) Unit.
The statement explained that subsequently, the refinery had been depending on imported finished products to serve the market.
It said it was in the process of discharging one such cargo of 5,000 metric tonnes of LPG, which arrived over the weekend through an arrangement by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) from the Oil Jetty to the refinery.
The statement said TOR sincerely regrets the situation and any inconvenience that it might had caused.
The engineer who has began a kick off meeting with the management of the refinery according to Daily Graphic sources would use a period of about ten days to complete repair works on the equipment.
Acting Managing Director, Dr Kwame Ampofo, who corroborated the information to the Daily Graphic, indicated that, a total of $250,000 would be spent on the repair and maintenance of the equipment.
The plant was shut down early February following damage to the equipment when personnel were in the process of refining parcels of crude oil brought into the country by the Ghana National Petroleum Authority (GNPC) through the government-government arrangement with neighbouring Nigeria.
The shutdown of the facility also saw TOR supplying the consuming public with finished products which were procured for the refinery by Cirrus Energy, Fuel Trade and Sage Commodities.
Dr Ampofo further disclosed that, plans are far advance to replace the burnt loading gantry with automated facilities.
This according to him were parts of stringent safety measures being put in place following the aftermath of the January inferno at the facility that saw two employees losing their lives in the process.
On the shortage of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in the market, he assured the public that the refinery was working hard to repair a leakage that was detected on its sixth pipeline leading to the suspension of the discharge of the product over the weekend.
He also assured of consistent supply of petroleum products to the markets following further arrangement of crude oil supply from its accredited agents for production works.
A statement signed by Ms Aba Lokko, Public Affairs Manager of TOR, said the company acknowledged the present shortage of LPG on the market, but attributed the situation to some technical difficulties resulting from the fire outbreak on January 19, 2010.
It noted that the incident also coincided with a major maintenance being carried out on the Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracker (RFCC) Unit.
The statement explained that subsequently, the refinery had been depending on imported finished products to serve the market.
It said it was in the process of discharging one such cargo of 5,000 metric tonnes of LPG, which arrived over the weekend through an arrangement by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) from the Oil Jetty to the refinery.
The statement said TOR sincerely regrets the situation and any inconvenience that it might had caused.
GNPC DENIES PRODUCT DIVERSION ALLEGATIONS
THE Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, Nana Boakye Asafu-Adjaye has denied allegations that the corporation was diverting refined finished products from the government-government crude oil arrangements to certain individuals within the corridors of government.
Speaking in an interview with the Daily Graphic in the wake of allegations by workers of the Tema Oil Refinery of the GNPC’s alledged diversion of products to its board chairman Mr Ato Ahwoi, Nana Asafu Adjaye indicated, TOR as an institution was handicapped owing to the difficult financial crisis which has resulted in its inability to obtain Letters of Credit (LCs) for the purchase of crude oil for refining.
He said government had tried to bail the refinery out from the crisis by requesting the GNPC facilitate the Letters of Credit required for the importation of crude oil.
He explained that the GNPC as an agency do not retail petroleum products but rather when refined products from crude oil processed are by TOR, the corporation then supplies the products to bulk distribution companies such as Cirrus energy, Fuel Trade and Sahara who have the capacities to establish letters of credit for purchases.
Nana Asafu-Adjaye noted, the Ministry of Energy, the National Petroleum Authority, TOR and the GNPC had agreed on a processing fee of $32.5 cent per metric tonne of crude of oil procured by the corporation.
‘It’s absurd on the part of workers of the refinery to be raising red flags about this arrangement as we believe the present tolling arrangement was necessary in view the current situation TOR finds itself in’, he remarked.
According to Nana Boakye, the corporation’s temporary arrangement towards salvaging TOR from its predicament was done in the national interest.
He reiterated that no member of the board or for that matter the board chair, Mr Ato Ahwoi have diverted any petroleum product meant for the general public’s consumption as being alledged by the workers.
Commenting on the corporation’s progress towards the acquisition of Kosmos energy’s stake in the jubilee field, Nana Boakye said, the corporation has made considerable progress in the discussion.
He disclosed the breach committed in the agreement by Kosmos through the disclosure of confidentiality agreement of GNPC’s data without any prior notification to the corporation was tended to the later’s proprietary interest.
According to the chief executive, the provision of the petroleum agreement requires that, ‘any party disclosing information or providing data to any third party under article 16.6 shall require such person to undertake the confidentiality of such data.
‘We are committed to ensuring that the country derives maximum benefit from the oil find as we make efforts to ensure investors gets decent return on their investment’, he added.
Workers of TOR at a recent emergency meeting accused officials of the GNPC from diverting from its core business of exploration into selling of finished products from the government-government crude oil arrangement from neighbouring Nigeria being processed by the refinery.
Speaking in an interview with the Daily Graphic in the wake of allegations by workers of the Tema Oil Refinery of the GNPC’s alledged diversion of products to its board chairman Mr Ato Ahwoi, Nana Asafu Adjaye indicated, TOR as an institution was handicapped owing to the difficult financial crisis which has resulted in its inability to obtain Letters of Credit (LCs) for the purchase of crude oil for refining.
He said government had tried to bail the refinery out from the crisis by requesting the GNPC facilitate the Letters of Credit required for the importation of crude oil.
He explained that the GNPC as an agency do not retail petroleum products but rather when refined products from crude oil processed are by TOR, the corporation then supplies the products to bulk distribution companies such as Cirrus energy, Fuel Trade and Sahara who have the capacities to establish letters of credit for purchases.
Nana Asafu-Adjaye noted, the Ministry of Energy, the National Petroleum Authority, TOR and the GNPC had agreed on a processing fee of $32.5 cent per metric tonne of crude of oil procured by the corporation.
‘It’s absurd on the part of workers of the refinery to be raising red flags about this arrangement as we believe the present tolling arrangement was necessary in view the current situation TOR finds itself in’, he remarked.
According to Nana Boakye, the corporation’s temporary arrangement towards salvaging TOR from its predicament was done in the national interest.
He reiterated that no member of the board or for that matter the board chair, Mr Ato Ahwoi have diverted any petroleum product meant for the general public’s consumption as being alledged by the workers.
Commenting on the corporation’s progress towards the acquisition of Kosmos energy’s stake in the jubilee field, Nana Boakye said, the corporation has made considerable progress in the discussion.
He disclosed the breach committed in the agreement by Kosmos through the disclosure of confidentiality agreement of GNPC’s data without any prior notification to the corporation was tended to the later’s proprietary interest.
According to the chief executive, the provision of the petroleum agreement requires that, ‘any party disclosing information or providing data to any third party under article 16.6 shall require such person to undertake the confidentiality of such data.
‘We are committed to ensuring that the country derives maximum benefit from the oil find as we make efforts to ensure investors gets decent return on their investment’, he added.
Workers of TOR at a recent emergency meeting accused officials of the GNPC from diverting from its core business of exploration into selling of finished products from the government-government crude oil arrangement from neighbouring Nigeria being processed by the refinery.
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