A fire officer with the
Koforidua Municipal office of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) in the Eastern
Region whose (name withheld) for security reason was reported to invoke courses
of deities to deal with the Eastern Regional Fire Officer, Assistant Chief Fire
Officer (ACFO), Mr Samuel Sarpong Mensah for falsely accusing him together with
two other fire officers for linking information to the media about the current
corrupt practice which has rocked the Eastern Regional Headquarters of GNFS in
Koforidua.
To Mr Mensah,according to
sources close to the Koforidua GNFS headquarters, the three fire officers had
masterminded the linkage of the information to the media that he has allegedly
arrogated to himself too “many powers” to the extent that no fireman nobody
dares question his decisions and actions.
The sources alleged that Mr
Mensah accused the three that they told the media that he connive some top
officials at the GNFS headquarters in Accra and Koforidua, allegedly use fire
tender as the commercial water tanker with registration No FS 502 to sell water
to residents, schools, churched, hospitals and other private organisations,
with the proceeds shared amongst themselves.
The media report that “..if you
dare question Mr Mensah’s actions and decisions you will incur his wrath.”
In that publication, Daily
Analyst reported that its investigations unfolded that during the lock down in
the wake of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Mr Mensah ordered water
to be fetched for health care facilities and some information organizations
within the Koforidua.
And the money that was paid for
this service, this paper gathered, found its way into the personal account of
Mr. Mensah.
That act by Mr Mensah, the fire
service Myurce disclosed, infuriated some fire men and drivers who apparently
had been drawing the water for people to question his why he was using state
property to make money for himself.
Aside raising alarm over corrupt practice of Mr Mensah, the
aggrieved
firemen accused him for non performance, saying
that Mr Mensah through the central government has failed in providing them with
the basic fire disasters fighting and rescue service logistics, resources and
structures to aid them in their work to combat fire outbreaks.
They further accused Mr Mensah
and President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Adoo administration of messing up the
Koforidua office of GNFS, leaving it worse off than the current administration
came to meet it.
They lamented that the GNFS
office at Koforidua Municipal Assembly was in a much deteriorating state.
They added that although there
is a Technical Services Department in the GNFS office at Koforidua Municipal
Assembly being headed by Technical Services Fire Officer, the office lacks most
suitable type of fire fighting equipment, tools, vehicles and communication
equipment, a worrying situation, they said, was affecting their operations.
They revealed that the two fire fighting vehicles
including communication facilities in GNFS office at Koforidua Municipal
Assembly for the fire officers to ensure the proactiveness of the current
command to combat fire outbreaks in Koforidua enclaves were broken down due to
lack of money to buy spare parts to repair them.
“Our vehicles in the GNFS office at Koforidua
Municipal Assembly were broken down for the past two to three years now and
that any time that there is fire outbreak in Koforidua enclaves, we have to
order vehicles far away from Suhum or Asamakese before we can go to fight fire
outbreaks.
“We understand that the office needs GH¢5,000.00 to
help repair the two broken vehicles but these vehicles were still packed under
the mercy of weather at the premises of our office,” aggrieved fire officers at
Koforidua Municipal Assembly noted.
They stated that they cannot control fire outbreaks
in the communities of Koforidua effectively because of unavailability of
property fire fighter logistics.
However, when contacted the Public Relations Officer
(PRO) of the Eastern Regional office of GNFS, Assistant Divisional Officer, Mr
Ingenious Kwabena Beidoo denied allegations to the effect that Mr Mensah and
his cohorts use fire tender as the commercial water tanker to sell water to
residents, schools, churches, hospitals and other private organisations, with
the proceeds shared amongst themselves.
He explained that the Eastern Regional office of GNFS
sometimes being ordered by the authority to use the water tanker to render
humanitarian water delivery services to some residents, schools, churches,
hospitals and other private organisations who are in dire needs of water but
they did not charged of the services they rendered to those people.
“We never used our water tanker vehicle to do
commercial business of fetching water for households in Koforidua. But I can
say on authority that sometimes people that we render humanitarian water
delivery services do give us money willingly to buy petrol for our water tanker
vehicle but it doesn’t means that we use the water tanker for the commercial
water business,” Mr Beidoo further explained.
He also described as untrue the allegations that the
Koforidua office of GNFS have to order vehicles far away from Suhum and
Asamakese before the fire men there can use to go to fight fire outbreaks
within the Koforidua areas.
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