Stop defending PDS over dumsor - PNC to government

The Deputy General Secretary of People's National Convention (PNC), Huruna Mohammed has questioned why government keeps speaking on behalf of power suppliers, when they are capable of telling Ghanaians what is actually causing the power outage being experienced off late.

The Ministry of Energy came out to explain that the power outage being experienced in some parts of the country was due to the total shutdown of the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant in the Western Region.

It also explained that the power outage was not the result of the lack of funds to purchase fuel for power plants.

At a press briefing in Accra, the Deputy Minister of Energy in charge of Power, Mr William Owuraku Aidoo, said the total shutdown of the Atuabo Plant was to make way for Ghana Gas to interconnect its systems with the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCO).

Speaking on Atinka TV’s morning show, Ghana Nie Tuesday, Huruna Mohammed quizzed that, “Why is the government coming out to defend the power suppliers, the power suppliers have a public relations department and can speak for themselves. Therefore, they should come out and tell us what exactly they are doing, it is not the government’s business to defend the power suppliers, and that is our concern.”

Based on the above statement by the Ministry, he also argued that government was being economical about the situation, adding that the ministry’s explanation about the power outage was false.

“People are reliably informed that it is about monetary issues, getting the crude to power our plant. Therefore if the government comes out to say that it is because of the restructuring at the Atuabo Gas, it is not the truth and people are really hurt in terms of the activities that they carry out every day, “he said.

“They were economical about the truth, because when they started, they said the issue had to do with the repositioning of the power lines in Ofankor and it took us two weeks, now, they are saying again that it is because of the restructuring of the gas pipes that is coming from Nigeria, so that they can get a free flow, in case the one from Nigeria stops, that is who we are experiencing Dumsor,” he added.

Huruna Mohammed, however, urged the government to come out with a clear time table for Ghanaians to know when they will experience ‘Dumsor’ in order to plan ahead.

“People’s businesses are collapsing, people are afraid to do business in this hard times that we belong. For this reason, we are coming out strongly to tell government that it should do all it can, if it is about monetary matter, he should do well and get the gas restructured or get the oil to power the turbines otherwise businesses will still strike down,” he added.

Meanwhile, the National Communications Officer of All People’s Congress (APC), Francis Ansah Tawiah said that, “We all know the issue is about money, and if the issue is about money, they have to find the money and pay the debt.”

He also said that, “The NPP promised us in opposition that they have the men to deal with this energy issue so since they have the men, they should use those men to fix the problem instead of telling us it is a small problem they are trying to fix, we are not interested in explaining problems to us, we are only interested in fixing the problems for us.”