A former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Authority (GNPC), Dr. Amos Ofori Quaah, has disclosed how he was nearly killed by the staff of the corporation when he took a tough decision to cut down the workforce.
Dr. Quaah, who was part of the formative years of GNPC, told energynewsafrica.com in an interview that when the New Patriotic Party (NPP) led by John Agyekum Kufuor won power in 2000 and formed government in 2001, he was appointed the CEO of the corporation.
He said at the time, the corporation had a total workforce of over 900 people.
Recounting how former President John Kufuor wanted to scrap GNPC due to its involvement in non-core businesses which had put the corporation in financial crisis, Dr. Quaah said he managed to convince the president to change his mind by promising to cut down the workforce.
Dr. Quaah said he decided to trim the workforce from over 900 to 72 staff.
Dr. Quaah indicated that when he communicated the intention to trim the workforce, there were so many agitations in the Corporation that some of the staff wanted to burn the Tema Head Office.
According to him, on two occasions, some workers planted a six-inch nail in his car tyres to blast and kill him on his way home.
“On two occasions, I discovered six inches of a nail stuck in my car tyres and it was the grace of God that saved me.
“It got so scary that when I arrived in the office to work, my driver would drive the vehicle to the Tema Regional Police Command to park it. And when I was in the office, there would be an ASP Police officer on my right and an Inspector on my left to offer me protection,” Dr. Quaah recounted.
Narrating how he was saved from the various plots of the aggrieved workers, Dr. Quaah revealed that he had several junior staff who were his close friends and “they would normally go along with the entire plan they hatched but would sneak into my office and brief me about what they had planned to do. And the moment they briefed me, I would call the National Security in,” he said.
Despite the horrific experiences he went through, Dr. Quaah said he and the management advanced the course of the Corporation, leading to the discovery of oil in commercial quantities in 2007.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com