THE MINISTRY of Defence (MOD)is to relocate the Base Ammunition Depot (BAD) from its present base near the Michel Camp, Tema, to two sites, one in the north and the other in the south.

Defence Minister, Addo Kufuor disclosed this in Parliament last week. According to him, the planners of military installations around the country sited the armouries and magazines away from the civil residential areas. However, with time the expansion of civilian dwelling areas has caught up with all military barracks, offices and training centres.

An armoury is a secured place where the military stores and keeps its arms/weapons, whereas a magazine is a fortified and secured storage area for ammunition, bombs and explosives. Major unit armouries are normally sites close to working areas but the magazines are located further away from troops and accommodation in view of inherent dangers.

The minister said the BAD was built in the 1960s at the time the facility had a safety distance of about four kilometers from residential areas and this posed no danger to residents. Now, however, the depot vicinity has been massively encroached upon by developers to a distance of less than one kilometer.

Dr. Addo Kufuor stated that the uncontrollable encroachment on BAD has compelled the MOD to initiate a formal move to relocate the depot from its present densely populated area to two remote sites. A technical team visited two sites between 22 and 28 September, last year, and after submitting evaluation and assessment report, all is set for the construction of modern ammunition depots.

It also noted that the new sites are large enough to contain the safety distance of all nature of ammunition held in the Ghana Armed Forces. The Defence Minister further stated that Ghana has taken these measures with the recent Nigerian experience in mind.

Last year this paper reported on a number of explosives at Tema, mainly discarded ones, from the beach through Community Five to Community 18. Apart from that of Community 18, two unexploded highly explosive (H.E.) shells, the remaining two exploded killing two persons.

The first was a grenade found at the beach by two sons of a pastor and as they lifted and examined the strange object, it detonated killing them instantly.

Workmen constructing a fence wall at Community Five excavated the long heavy unsuspecting object, placed it among rubbish and when set ablaze, the H.E. shell defused, recording cracks in mansions after a deafening sound.

Investigations conducted by this reporter later revealed that part of Tema between the present port location and the west towards Sakumono, was dotted with bunkers and ammunition depots during Second World War.