The youth of Nzema, on Monday, staged a peaceful demonstration to demand the whereabouts of the Osagyefo Power Barge.
The youth, clad in red, walked through the principal streets of Ekpu ending up at Half Assini, the capital of the Municipality.
The Osagyefo Power Barge, according to the Deputy Minister for Energy, William Owuraku Aidoo, during a recent statement on the floor of Parliaments, said the government had taken steps to decommission the 185MW plant, which had suffered deterioration from excessive corrosion as a result of idleness since 2017.
The statement by the Deputy Minister comes after the Member of Parliament (MP) for Jomoro, Dorcas Affo-Toffey, on the floor of the House, asked the Minister to tell the world the whereabouts of the barge.
In a statement to the House, Dorcas Toffey asked the government to prosecute those involved in the alleged sale of the barge.
At the demonstration, the youth, who carried various placards, alleged that the barge had been sold
The President of the Nzema Youth League, Dr. Patrick Ekye Kwese, threw his support behind the demonstrators, adding that whatever the youth would do to get to the bottom of the issue, he was in support.
He said, the barge could be used for so many things, but its disappearance was strange.
Earlier, the Member of Parliament for Jomoro tweeted a message in support of the demonstration.
The Osagyefo Barge was originally built in 1947 as a cargo ship called ‘MV Volta River’, which served as a vessel for transporting goods along the Volta River. In 1990, Ghana faced severe power shortages and the then Rawlings government sought solutions to address the energy crisis.
The decision was made to convert MV Volta River into a power generating facility. The transformation involved retrofitting the ship with power generating equipment, including gas turbines and generators.
After conversion, the ship was renamed the Osagyefo Power Barge in honour of Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. The barge was towed to its current location in Effasu, on the Western Region, where it began operations in the year 2000.
The barge has played a crucial role in Ghana power generation infrastructure, helping to stabilise electricity supply and meet the growing demand for energy in the country.
