Mahama condemns Akufo-Addo's government over fuel hikes

Former President John Dramani Mahama has charged government to institute measures to cushion consumers against high fuel prices.

“We [National Democratic Congress administration] managed to stabilize the price of fuel in 2016 before we left. Even though we had deregulated, we found a way of making sure that prices remained stable. Now the extent to which [the price of fuel] keep going up is a worry, and so I think it is something that government should look at,” Mr Mahama said on Saturday, 24 February 2018, during the Unity Walk organised by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) at Somanya in the Eastern region.

Mr Mahama further criticised the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government for failing to fulfill its campaign promise of removing taxes to lessen the burden on citizens and wondered why fuel prices are still high more than a year after the NPP took office.

“We were told that it [petrol] was too expensive and that 50 percent of the petrol was made up of taxes alone and that when they win and come into office, they would remove the taxes so that petrol will [be cheaper]. Today petrol is selling at GHS 22 per gallon,” he noted.

Mr Mahama warned government about the dire consequences of high fuel prices especially Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and demanded government’s intervention else consumers could be forced to use charcoal which will lead to more destruction of the environment.

“I am even more concerned about LPG because LPG was about GHS40 before December 7. Today LPG is more than GHS80. What it means is that for those who cannot afford LPG, they will go back to using charcoal and we all know the implications of using charcoal. When you use charcoal, it degrades the environment and so government should do something about the price of LPG particularly,” Mr Mahama emphasised.