It was an eye-sore and an unforgettable experience when journalists invited to join the navy’s welcome party for the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah were ironically welcomed by cockroaches and a pungent stench as they board a Ghana navy vessel, GNS Sebor. FPSO Kwame Nkrumah arrived in Ghana from Singapore on Monday. The vessel would be used to collect and process crude oil in commercial quantity from the Jubilee field when commercial production begins later this year. Unexpectedly, the curious journalists who gladly accepted the invitation to be part of what they thought would be a memorable occasion, had to contend with the repugnant stench and shocking filth in the vessel, GNS Sebor, which was to ferry them to the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah. The vomiting press men and women on board the vessel did not hide their disappointment. Interestingly, the owners of the vessel, the Ghana Armed Forces, are an institution which scores high marks on neatness. “Everywhere you turn you see cockroaches, as I speak now I feel like vomiting,” Joy FM’s Western Regional correspondent, Kwaku Owusu-Peprah, narrated his ordeal at the General Mess of the GNS Sebor. He described the scent at the place as unbearably offensive and wondered how the army officers are able to, without any pun intended, live in “such a mess” for months as they patrol Ghana’s territorial waters. “The men are doing their best but the equipment are not there, we are here living with cockroaches and flies. And the speed level of Sebor is too slow,” a naval officer confirmed the ignoble condition, raising concerns about the country’s preparedness to fight off attackers as it starts producing oil. Some of the journalists on board the vessel described their experience as “very disturbing”. Owusu-Peprah noted that the GNS Sebor is the fastest of the ships owned by the Ghana Navy, followed by the “tortoise speed” GNS Achimota. A naval officer who spoke to Myjoyonline.com bemoaned the conditions of their “rusty” vessels. The navy say all the vessels they have are running on one engine instead of two or three. On the issue of cockroaches, they said countless appeals have been made to the military high command but there has not been any favourable response, “because they don’t go there, they only say we have heard without actually doing something positive”. Story by Isaac Essel/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana