By Ameenu Shardow
The technical staff of the Baba Yara Stadium have been cited for their gross incompetence in the unfortunate stadium blackout on June 1.
The playing field of the Baba Yara Stadium was plunged into darkness after the flood lights failed to function during a World Cup qualifier between Ghana and Lesotho.
The game needed to be suspended in the second half after it became apparent that there was a massive challenge with visibility.
The match which was on the brink of being called off resumed after over an hour break during which time technicians were making frantic efforts to get the floodlights on.
Many accusations started flying in as to who was indeed responsible for the embarrassment, necessitating the setting p of a five-man committee to thoroughly investigate the circumstances leading to the blackout.
And though failing to meet its original deadline, the committee concluded and presented its work to the Ashanti Regional Minister Dr. Kwaku Agyemang-Mensah on Friday where they stated there was no case of sabotage.
Rather, the committee identified a problem with the “feed pumps†of the 1,000kVA generator that powers the floodlights.
Switching supply from the generator to the national grid via the Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS) could not be effected because the manual and automatic modes had both been disabled during the installation.
The Committee observed that if a simulation test had been done by the stadium technicians after the installation, the problem could have been detected.
Effectively, the findings ripped into the inefficiencies of the technical staff of the Baba Yara Stadium by stating: “They (technical stadd) do not have the adequate technical capacity to manage the generator sets and control panel facilities.â€
Full details and recommendations of the report is expected to be made public in a few days time after the responsible custodians complete the full analysis of the report.
Ghana was leading 4-0 by the time the match was suspended.
The Black Stars return to complete an absolute demolition of Lesotho as the game ended 7-0 on the night.