Mahama Ayariga exposes Akufo-Addo

Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga has blasted President Akufo-Addo for failing to acknowledge former President John Mahama when he cut sod for the commencement of the construction of a 400MW Bridge Power project.

According to the NDC, although the world’s largest LPG-fired power plant was one of the numerous projects John Mahama bequeathed President Akufo-Addo; the latter deliberately failed to acknowledge the exploits of his predecessor.

Peeved by the President’s ingratitude, the former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovations took to facebook to lay bare the facts surrounding the 400MW Bridge Power project.

He wrote: “Prez Akufo-Addo cut sod last week for the construction of an LPG-fired power plant at Tema and refused to acknowledge the JM government for the good work done. Now this is the whole story.

Early Power Project. General Electric (GE) and GoG signed the Ghana 1000 MoU in 2013 under which GE was to build a 1,000 mw plant at Aboadze.

In January 2015, Sage on behalf of GE and Endeavour (the other consortium member) presented a proposal to the newly formed Ministry of Power to build an LPG-fired power plant at Tema on a fast track basis to help solve the power problem. The project was sanctioned by the Ministry of Power for negotiations.

Around March 2015, JM met the CEO of GE during the signing of the ENI agreement and made a special request to him to see to the construction of the power plant.This request was reiterated by the Minister for Power when he met the GE CEO during the same trip.

The project was approved provisionally by Cabinet in February 2016 and received Executive Approval in July 2016. Parliament approved it in August 2016. This is the project for which President Akuffo Addo cut sod at Tema on Thursday April 27, 2017. JM legacy.”

Speaking at a ground-breaking ceremony, at Tema, last week, President Akufo-Addo noted that the $1 billion project is consistent with his government’s vision of making Ghana self-sufficient in electricity for industrial and domestic use, and to drive the country’s socio-economic development.

This project, the President revealed, would be one of several initiatives that will be introduced along the power supply value chain in order to achieve a cost effective, efficient and sustainable energy sector.

“For us laypersons, our interest in these agreements rests largely on cost, reliability and flexibility. I am glad to learn the plant will be able to operate on LPG, natural gas, and diesel, and this flexibility will allow the plant to continue producing power in times of disruption in the supply of any one of the fuel types.

I am also glad to note that the project has been specifically designed to switch to Ghana’s own natural gas, once available. This should help advance our strategy to leverage natural gas as a long-term source of fuel, central to the operation of the power sector,” he said.