The Minority Caucus in Parliament has threatened to embark on a demonstration if the government fails to clear all the containers of essential medical supplies locked up at the Tema Port.
This follows a two-week ultimatum given by the Health Minister to officers to clear the consignment donated to Ghana by the Global Fund.
The Health Minister, Bernard Okoe Boye assured that he will be compelled to visit the port and sit there until the right thing is done after the two-week ultimatum has elapsed
Addressing journalists, the Ranking Member on the Health Committee of Parliament, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, charged the government to do the needful and clear the containers.
“Remember, we addressed you on the locked-up commodities and medications at the port. And as you know, we the members of parliament from the Minority side will not relent in our effort to push the government to clear these locked-up commodities and drugs until they are cleared from the port. That must be put on record and as we speak, not all the containers containing drugs and commodities at the port have been cleared.
“We are a group of reasonable people and so we have heard the plea by the minister responsible for help that we should give him two weeks.
“Although it doesn’t make any sense to plead for two weeks to clear commodities that have been at the port for one good year, we have heard him but we are sending a clear signal and warning that within his own two weeks, all, and the emphasis is all, all the containers, containing these drugs should be cleared from the port.
Not some, as they have been doing.”
He also urged the government to, as a matter of urgency, respond to the grievances of the Medical Laboratory Professional Workers’ Union to avoid the situation of health workers travelling outside the country to seek greener pastures.
