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Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer has described President Kufuor’s promise to Ghanaians that the energy crisis would soon be over, as false. According to him, the President’s assertion in his State of the Nation Address that over $1million had been invested in the energy sector was a diversionary strategy to confuse Ghanaians.
“He must also tell the truth to the nation, not always try to hide the truth, because as we continue to see, you cannot suppress the truth indefinitely,” he stated. He was therefore holding him “personally responsible for the drawing down of the Akosombo reservoir below the allowed minimum level of 240 ft to the current precarious level of 237.78 ft.”
“The decision to deplete the reservoir was to enable VALCO be in operation and satisfy President Kufuor’s claim to be establishing an “Integrated Aluminum Industry” without caring about the safety of the Akosombo dam and at the expense of the rest of the country. This situation is totally unacceptable.”
Prof. Mills was addressing a news conference at the Kama Conference Centre in Accra, in a reaction to the government’s position on the current electricity crisis in the country.
He alleged that not only did the government force the Volta River Authority (VRA) to run down the Volta Lake, but as well forced it to sell power to VALCO far below VRA’s average cost of production, a situation that has put VRA in serious financial distress and made it hardly able to meet its commitments.
Prof. Mills accused generator importers as well of being the brain behind the energy crisis since, according to him, “there are those who will benefit from importing generators, from importing various battery-powered appliances.” He insisted that there were those who were still benefiting from the crisis as the country continues to import expensive crude oil to fire the thermal plants at Aboadze.
Prof. Mills said if President Kufuor was serious with the energy crisis facing the country, he would have appreciated their (NDC) efforts and not seek to prop-up any “property-owning” individuals and groups.
To alleviate the problem, the NDC flagbearer said when in power, his government would deploy emergency power supplies to augment the distressed national power system, and this would be done with the most cost-effective solutions.
He stated that such emergency supplies would be for a defined period, during which period no effort should be spared to implement the longer term more cost-effective solutions.
Prof. Mills called for the finalising of agreement on the West African Gas Pipeline project with a clear sense of the country’s objectives.
He expressed the party’s displeasure in relocating the Osagyefo Barge Project to Tema and called for active steps to be taken to ensure that companies which held the rights to Tano fields also participated in the resolution of the national crisis by accelerating field development plans to produce natural gas for the barge.
At the news conference were NDC gurus including Messrs Kwabena Adjei, NDC National Chairman, Alban Bagbin, Kwamena Ahwoi, Moses Asaga.
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