Board Chairman of the Petroleum Hub Development Corporation (PHDC) Awulae Annor Adjaye III has lauded the Convention People's Party's (CPP) Parliamentary Candidate for Jomoro, Nana Blay Miezah, for spearheading a stakeholder engagement on the Petroleum Hub Development Project. According to the Board Chair of the PHDC, the stakeholder engagement would put to rest all shades of misunderstanding and misrepresentation from land issues to compensation and local content policy. Awulae Annor Adjaye III, who is the Paramount Chief and President of the Western Nzema Traditional Council, was speaking at a stakeholder engagement meeting on the Petroleum Hub Development Project at Beyin in the Jomoro Municipality of the Western Region. It was attended by traditional rulers, land owners, farmers, youth, PHDC, land valuation officers from the Jomoro Municipal Assembly, politicians, security agencies and the media. The government of Ghana recently signed a-12-billion dollar agreement with TCP-UIC Consortium for the firs t phase of the Petroleum Hub Development Project. The entire project is estimated to cost 60 billion dollars and is expected to offer direct and indirect employment to 780,000 workers. Awulae Annor Adjaye III said after receiving a petition from Nana Blay Miezah on matters pertaining to the Petroleum Hub Development Project, he welcomed the idea and did not hesitate to convene the meeting. The Board Chair said the PHDC was ready to engage stakeholders with forward-looking thoughts in a more civilized approach. He, however, condemned detractors of the project who hide under social media platforms to hurl insults against him and traditional rulers. Awulae Annor Adjaye III advised those platforms to halt the unnecessary agitations which had the potential to mar the project. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the PHDC, Dr Charles Owusu also congratulated Nana Blay Miezah for mooting the idea to engage stakeholders in the Petroleum Hub Development Project. He said the PHDC had embarked upon community sensitiz ation on the project for some time now. Dr Owusu said issues bordering on land acquisition and compensation, land size, resettlement, local content policy, training of required manpower for the project had been taken care of. He assured people in Jomoro that no stakeholder in the Petroleum Hub Project would be shortchanged. The CEO appealed to stakeholders in the project to forward their grievances to office of the PHDC for redress. The Paramount Chief and President of the Gwira Traditional Council, Awulae Angama Tu-Agyandoffed off his hat for Nana Blay Miezah and Awulae Annor Adjaye III for coming to terms to organize such an important meeting to elicit views of stakeholders in the emerging Petroleum Hub industry in Jomoro. He urged the PHDC to pay adequate compensation to landowners and farmers whose crops would be destroyed. For his part, Nana Blay Miezah expressed profound gratitude to Awulae Annor Adjaye III for the opportunity to rally all stakeholders in the Petroleum Hub project for consensus bu ilding. He said unemployment continued to stir the face of the teeming youth of Jomoro due to the absence of factories in the Municipality. Nana Blay Miezah stressed the need to fasten the pace of the Petroleum Hub Development Project. He said apart from the land compensation, the PHDC should set aside a percentage of proceeds from the project to spearhead development of Jomoro. Source: Ghana News Agency