Don’t use procedures to deny us Pwalungu multipurpose dam - NPP chairman tells NDC MP

No matter how cumbersome Parliamentary procedures may be, the laws or those procedures are made to benefit people, hence procedures should not be used to technically starve the people of Upper East Region what is due them. This is the assertion by Upper East Regional Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) Anthony Namoo.

He made this comment in a radio interview on A1 Radio in reaction to the minority side in Parliament boycotting discussions on the GHS993 billion Pwalungu Multipurpose Dam loan agreement laid before the house.

According to Mr. Namoo, the reprehensible actions of the National Democratic Congress’(NDC) Members of Parliament(MPs) especially, those from the Upper East Region were borne out hatred and dislike for the development of the region.

The Chairman who earlier led a press conference of NPP regional Executives and called on residents to vote out all NDC MPs from the region, reiterated his position on live radio that he was convinced the NDC was hiding behind technicalities to starve the region of the enviable Pwalungu Multipurpose Dam if not, they could have supported the Majority side to bend the procedures and laws in parliament to approve the loan.

“No matter how parliamentary procedure is, the law or the parliamentary is made for the people not people for the procedure and we should not follow procedure and starve ourselves you have to also understand the rains will soon come in so that if they can start work quickly. We also have to understand that $500 million was secured by the Kufour administration in 2008 before it exited, that money was diverted so this is the history of the NDC. So as far as the project is concerned, they have a very negative history on the project, the relationship between the project and the NDC is so toxic that whatever they are saying we have to look at it and contextualize it along the line of what they have done for us about the project” he lamented.

He added that , there was the need to construct the project urgently ahead of the rainy season since further delays will lead to loss of human lives and properties resulting from the spillage of Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso.

President Nana Akufo Addo has cut sod for the Construction of Pwalungu Multipurpose Dam and a loan agreement of Ghs993 billion has been laid before Parliament but the Minority has distanced itself from the deal on grounds that procedures surrounding the loan have not been transparent and the cost is also inflated. This has led parliament to defer debate on the loan agreement.