The Produce Buying Company (PBC) Limited says the technical experts hired to perform maintenance works on their Effiduase fuel reservoir were not misled about the content of the tank.

This is in response to a suggestion made by the Deputy Director of NADMO at the New Juabeng North Municipal Assembly, Daniel Kankam Twumasi, that the technical experts hired by PBC may have been misled.

This suggestion was made on the back of the deaths of three of the technical experts in the fuel tank at Effiduase.

Explaining circumstances surrounding the incident to JoyNews, Daniel Kankam Twumasi said, their preliminary investigations had revealed that the company may have failed to disclose the exact content of the tank to the workers.

 “What our investigations can say is when they entered into the pit they couldn’t breathe because probably they might have been misled that the tank was containing diesel but in actual sense it contained adulterated fuel that is, probably there might have even been petrol or other chemicals being mixed,” he said.

The situation he believes might have led to their neglect of safety measures on site.

“It could be possible, because when we brought them out of the pit they were not wearing any such things on them,” he said.

However, responding to the allegation, PBC Limited says the workers were amply aware of the content of the tanks.

In a press release, the company explained that at no point were the technical experts – IEP Makswift Engineering Company Limited – misled as to the content of the fuel storage tanks.

“It is worthy to note that all operational vehicles in the company run on only diesel and that those fuel tanks in question contained diesel,” PBC Limited said.

It added that “The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has dispatched its team of experts to analyse the sample of fuel to authenticate its content and was of the view that this was diesel.”

Meanwhile, the company has been in touch with NADMO to provide clarification.

PBC Limited took the opportunity to commiserate with the families of the deceased  and prayed “for their peaceful rest.”