Minority rejects Akosombo substation fire as cause of power outages

The Minority in Parliament has pushed back against claims that the recent fire at the Akosombo Substation is the root cause of Ghana’s ongoing power outages, arguing that the crisis had already taken hold long before the incident.

At a press conference on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, the Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament’s Energy Committee, Collins Adomako-Mensah, said many Ghanaians had been living with erratic electricity supply for months, making it misleading to link the current situation solely to the April 23, 2026, fire outbreak.

"Ghana's power crisis, the dumsor that millions of Ghanaians have been enduring since January 25, 2026, was not caused by any accident at Akosombo. It was caused by this government,” he said.

For households and businesses across the country, the outages have not just been an inconvenience; they’ve disrupted daily routines, affected livelihoods, and created uncertainty.

According to the Minority, these struggles were already widespread well before the substation incident.

Adomako-Mensah described the fire as part of a deeper, long-standing problem within the energy sector.

“The events of 23rd April are the latest and most dramatic symptom of a power sector left to decay under the NDC's incompetent stewardship,” he said.

He cautioned against what he sees as an attempt to shift blame, insisting that the government must take responsibility for the broader challenges facing the sector.

“The Mahama government must not be permitted to use this incident as a convenient alibi for a crisis that predates it by more than a year, and the Minority will not allow that cynical rewriting of history to pass unchallenged,” he added.

Backing his argument, the Minority outlined a pattern of persistent outages across the country, noting that many communities had already been grappling with unannounced blackouts even before the fire.

“Long before the event of 23rd April 2026, Ghanaians across every region of this country had been enduring persistent, unannounced, and devastating power outages,” he said.

He pointed to multiple emergency and maintenance notices issued by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in April, as well as, public apologies from its leadership, as evidence of an already strained system.

For many ordinary Ghanaians, the impact has been deeply felt, from small businesses losing income to families struggling through long nights without power.

“Communities were living in darkness, not for hours, but for days. Industries were haemorrhaging losses. Cold stores were warm. Hospitals were straining on generators,” he stated, adding that "that was the reality of Ghana's power sector before any incident at Akosombo."

The Minority insists that these conditions cannot be ignored and must be central to any honest conversation about the country’s energy challenges.

NA/VPO

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