That Pamol Fire Disaster: Some 200 Workers May Lose Jobs

By Olive Ejang Tebug

The Ndian population in general and the workers of the agro-industrial concern, Pamol, is yet to fully recover from the shock brought about by a fire that consumed a component part the oil mill in Bulu, near Mundemba. The fire reportedly destroyed two presses of the mill, and it is likely that some 200 workers could be rendered jobless.

  The Post was told that the Bulu Camp fire started at 2:30 am around the crude oil tank beneath the second press and later spread to the first. All attempts by nightwatchmen and camp dwellers of Ikassa and its environs to put off the fire failed.

The disaster caused damages on electric cables, panels and associated components. The Pamol staff that had gathered in Mundemba for this year's Labour Day celebrations rushed back to Bulu where they estimated the loss at FCFA 300 million. 

The Technical Manager, Charles Nkiambuo, who opened investigation at the damaged site, estimates that the company will bear an extra cost of FCFA 100 million to transport fresh fruit bunches from Ndian Estate to Lobe, for processing during the period that the mill will stay shut. 

Senior Pamol officials estimated that the minimum duration for returning the Ndian factory operation is three months, which include importation, custom clearance and execution time.

According to the Deputy General Manager of Pamol Plantations Ltd, Charles Mekanya, the shutdown period shall cause much damage to a company, which is already financially bankrupt. He said out of the 200 workers in Ndian estate, some have been forced to go on leave, some idling around while others assist in maintenance, building and reconstruction.

Mekanya said that since the incident occurred, the company is forced to haul l50 tons of fruit from Ndian to Lobe Estate, using transporters vehicles, causing a loss of FCFA 1.5 million daily. He said this would affect worker's monthly salaries. 

However, he explained, they are doing all to avoid laying off workers as a result of the disaster. He appealed to the workers to work harder, fight fruit theft and increase production for the company to overcome the stress period. 

In the meantime, forces of law and order are still investigating the real cause of the fire, while Key -Tech and CAM service Engineering companies from Mutengene and Douala respectively, have started structural works at the mill.

Market Openings created as part of measures to stop the temporal financial problems, the management of Pamol has decided to market stocks of oil available to meet up with the financial crisis.

The Post was told that the General Manager, Obi Okpun Wan-Obi Osang went into a contract with the Kumba Council recently, where the latter was paid to renovate the Kumba stretch of the Ekondo Titi -Kumba road. This is aimed at paving the way for easy transportation of oil into the market. 

Unfortunately, Pamol has lost close to FCFA 1.5 billion since January 2006 as a result of drop in the prices of oil, from the estimated FCFA 430 to 300 per kg. There is fear that the price would even drop lower.

Comments

[Abesong Jones]

How much does it cost to run a fire department compared to how much has been lost now? Just wondering aloud. May God bless Cameroon.

[Rexon]

The fire may be a conspiracy by la republique du cameroun to destroy the remaining institutions in the Southern cameroons. We need to check well. This criminals are interested only in destroying all what belongs to us in the southern cameroons.

[kumbaboy]

It sounds like this mill did not have automatic water sprinklers installed. These devices are typically triggered by fire detection sensors. The electric panels must conform to water-proofing standards.

Does La Republique du Cameroun have an industrial building code?

Lobe and the other mills are all at risk. Wake up and learn fast. There is no room for complacency.

[SJ]

What France and la Republique du Cameroun could not afford to overtly destroy has been left to rot and literally implode in neglect. The successive ENAM-trained (by a colonial curriculum drawn up by France's Cooperation Agreements to enslave Africans) Camerounese administrators whose primitive diktats make law in the occupied Southern Cameroons must be quite pleased with another achievement. It will join Yoke, NPMB, Cameroon Bank, Tiko Seaport and Airport, Bessonabang Airport, Bali Airport, Bamenda Airport, WADA etc. etc.

I hope those who will be rendered unemployed by these deliberate French colonial policies of dispossession will begin to educate themselves about the reason why on so fertile a land that God put them in, they remain impoverished and are visited by violence constantly by the French and their Camerounese agents. The violence of death; the violence of unemployment; and the violence of obedience to lesser French-speaking colonial agents that has systematically reduced them to passive fixtures of ridicule and hopelessness.

[The Dons]

THAT COMPANY HAS NO IDEA ABOUT SAFETY OF IT'S WORKERS SO WHY TALK ABOUT FIRE FIGTHING EQUIPMENTS.

[GEORGE]

Guys lets be serious, even if that campany had fire fighters , i can assure you they would not have been there during that incident. We would have heard that most of them were sleeping or out of the post for reasons no one can tell. Neglect has become a cancar worm in Cameroon. After all every body is doing their best to looth as much as they can while they still have the time.
Only God can save this land.

[tafon]

DEAR FRIENDS AND FELLOW COUNTRY MEN THIS IS A MATTER NOT TO JOKE WITH. INSTEAD OF US TRYING TO SEE HOW WE CAN PREVENT SUCH AN INCIDENT FROM HAPPENING WE ARE INTERESTED IN BLAMING THE FRENCH CAMEROUN GOVERNMENT. IS THE FRANCOPHONES WHO ARE ET THE TOP OF BUISNESS IN PAMOL. IF YOU DONT KNOW LET ME INFORM YOU WE HAVE A MANYU MAN AS GENERAL MANAGER, OROCKO MAN AS DEPUTY AND IN THE NDIAN ESTATE MILL ITSELF THE ESTATE MANAGER IS A MAN FROM NORTHWEST THUS IT WAS AND STILL THEIR RESPONSILBLITIES TO TAKE CARE OF THE MILL AND MAKE SURE IT SERVES THEM AND US THE SOUTHERN CAMEROONIANS IF WE WISH TO ACHIEVE OUR DREAMS. I ONLY PITY THOSE FATHERS WHO HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THEIR RETIREMENT BENEFITS TO BE PAID AND YET HERE COMES ANOTHER DESASTER.

NDIAN ESTATE MILL WHICH IS THE MOST RECENTLY BUILT IS DOWN BECAUSE OF FIRE THEN WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE DELAPIDATED LOBE ESTATE MILL. IT IS TIME WHEN THEY WILL HAVE TO CALL BACK PEOPLE LIKE MR H.N L.MONONO THE MAN WHO BUILT AND HAS THE PLAN AF THE LOBE ESTATE MILL. BUT IF I AM SUCH A PIONEER FATHER IT SHOULD BE ON A CONTRACT BASIS. STAY WELL PEOPLE OF NDIAN PRAY HARDER FOR GOD IS IN CONTROL

[Rexon]

SJ,

Thanks you for all the analysis. This criminals are wary of our imminent independence and all they do is to send thugs to destroy our remaning institutions.