Govt assures Ghanaians of tackling energy crisis
...Nigeria promised, but failed to deliver
...Ignore Wereko Brobbey's statements
Accra, April 5, GNA - Mr Joseph Kofi Adda, Minister of Energy on Thursday gave the assurance that the government was tackling the energy crisis from a well-thought out approach designed to address the problem to meet the short, medium to long term needs.
He was speaking at a press conference to react to the statement made by Professor John Evans Atta Mills, Flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the government had failed Ghanaians due to its inability to solve the energy crisis.
Flanked by Mr. K.T.Hammond, Deputy Minister of Energy and Mr. Kwamena Bartels, Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mr Adda said government was focused to solve the problem in the best interest of the nation and advised Ghanaians not be deceived by the NDC as they could not solve the energy problem when they were in power.
He said Professor Mills accused the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) government of reversing all the important steps that the NDC initiated in the energy sector as well as engaging in falsehood, deception and diversionary tactics rather than making efforts to solve the problem. Mr. Adda said unfortunately, Professor Mills did not spell out a single case of falsehood, deception and diversion of facts as alleged but rather the Kufuor administration had brought the facts into the public domain with experts in the country currently discussing the energy issue.
He said the current energy crisis facing the nation was not an exception to the era of NPP administration, citing instances where the water levels in the dam had gone below the 240 feet in the past years. He said it was on record that the water level had gone below the minimum level nine times, of which five times was during the PNDC/NDC regime.
"The current level of the lake is at 237.32ft, but in 1983 it went down to 239.6, dropping further to its lowest level ever in history to 235.8ft by June 1984. This happened again in 1985, 1998 and 1999. Did the PNDC/NDC undermine the stability of the Dam and the Volta Lake?," he asked.
He stressed that government had no intention to place the Akosombo Lake at risk and that there had been clear plans of action to deal with the situation, while ensuring that the long-term sustainability of the energy sector was not jeopardized.
Reacting to the statement that President Kufuor wilfully gave out information to Ghanaians that was not accurate, the Energy Minister said it was true as stated in the Sessional address that Ghana was to benefit from a 200MW of power from Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire within a fortnight. He explained that as had been the normal procedure, the President consulted with his colleagues from the two countries who agreed to support Ghana with the 200MW, consisting of 120MW from Cote d'Ivoire and 80MW from Nigeria.
"While Nigeria succeeded in delivering 80MW to Togo and Benin with difficulty, they could not give anything over and above to Ghana. The Ivory Coast also was unable to keep their end of the arrangement as they faced serious difficulties..."
"And as we speak now, they have resorted to load shedding between April and June. Indeed the Ivorian Minister had to personally come to Ghana to apologise and explain the circumstances," he said. On allegations that the NDC government left behind a policy document to reform the energy sector, the Minister said he did not inherit any such document.
He stated that while it was true that the PNDC/NDC government took steps to introduce thermal generation into the energy mix, the VRA Aboadze thermal plant did not operate efficiently.
He said the NPP government had to invest considerable amount of money to improve its operational efficiency and reliability till date.
Mr Adda noted that realizing the strategic and economic significance of the West African Gas Pipeline Project (WAGP), the NPP government immediately assumed work, by signing the WAGP Treaty when it first assumed power.
He said the handling of the project was taken over by the Volta River Authority (VRA) from the Ghana National Petroleum Cooperation (GNPC), which had then gone technically bankrupt.
"Neither the GNPC nor government had paid for shares in the project and since the VRA was ultimately going to be the beneficiary of the project it was thought prudent that the VRA should manage it," he said. Mr Adda said contrary to Prof Mills' assertion that the Osagyefo barge was relocated to Tema to take advantage of the WAGP system and that the regional figure of 50 million US dollars was only an estimate, the final figure was far below that.
Reacting to a statement by Dr Wereko Brobbey describing the machines imported to augment the energy of the country as toys, Mr Adda said those statements must not be taken seriously as they would not contribute to solving the problem in any way.
He said the machines were not toys as alleged but were live machines, which countries like Turkey and Tanzania had requested to add unto their power generation.
Mr Adda said the current energy situation called for a more focused leadership to resolve the problem and that was exactly what the Kufuor administration was doing.
Journalists at the press conference however, expressed regret about the manner in which Politicians had taken the country for granted by blaming and counter-blaming each other instead of finding a lasting solution to the problem.
They said there was the need to focus on the issues at stake to take the country out of the crisis, adding that refusal to do this would result in more hardships and discourage investors from investing in Ghana. 05 April 2007
We don't need NDC's advice -Minister
Deputy Energy Minister, K. T. Hammond, has rubbished suggestions that the opposition National Democratic Congress has alternative solutions to offer the nation on the current energy crisis.
He said the NDC would better keep their solutions to themselves if people like Dr. Ampofo were party to the so-called solutions.
Reacting to suggestions by Dr Kwame Ampofo, MP for South Dayi and an Energy on an Accra-based radio station - JOYFM - the Deputy Minister said the NDC’s supposed solutions are hollow and full of mere pontificating, and he was not surprised because the likes of Dr. Ampofo made inputs to the solutions.
He said Dr. Ampofo is bankrupt in energy ideas and Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills would have done better if he had written his statement all by himself.
The NDC on Wednesday held a press conference addressed by its flagbearer, Prof. Mills at which it offered to put a team of energy experts at the disposal of the government in finding a solution to the energy crisis.
Dr. Ampofo had said that he had long held that sourcing power from Nigeria was an impossibility and doubted who advised President Kufuor that Ghana should procure power from that country who themselves have problems with their power generation and distribution.
President Kufuor had told Parliament in his State of the Nation address that Ghana was expecting power from Nigeria.
Dr. Ampofo said perhaps whoever contracted the deal had spoken to a lowly-placed technical staff in the Nigeria power generation outfit hence the conviction that Ghana could receive help.
Dr. Hammond said the NPP had not sat idle and even though it knew the Akosombo Dam was to lose some level of water, it did not expect the level to be this biting.
He said the government would welcome all suggestions to fix the problem but the “NDC paper is full of lies” and it was a very lousy job.
Source:
jfm
Source:
GNA
Spio denies Daily Guide and Statesman story
Dr Ekow Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, one of the candidates who contested for the National Democratic Congress’ flagbearer position has denied pouring scorn on Professor Evans Attah-Mills.
The Daily Guide newspaper reported on Thursday that Spio-Garbrah took a swipe at Professor Mill’s campaign approach for the 2008 elections during a closed-door meeting of executives of the National Democratic Congress at the Coco Beach at Nungua in Accra.
He is said to have condemned Prof Mills for not resourcing the NDC party enough for the coming elections.
Dr Garbrah told Joy News that he never made any such comment and that a careful reading of the Daily Guide account of what might have happened at the said meeting was the author’s own views.
He said at any rate, the election campaign is months away for anyone to conclude that not enough has already been done, and if anyone passed the comment, it certainly was not coming from him.
“That statement is absolutely false and totally untrue… it is very early yet for each of us to know what position to play in the team so how could I also then be accusing anybody of not having done enough. This is just March, April 2007 and the election is 2008, December so if anybody was going to resource the party I wouldn’t expect those resources to have appeared in February and March.”
The paper also quotes him as saying that the NDC needs about 20 million dollars to prosecute the elections but he again denied putting any figure down, explaining that the party indeed would need a lot of money but would not say how much.
Different newspapers have given separate interpretations to issues said to have been discussed at the meeting. Reports in the Accra Daily Mail and the Crusading Guide Newspapers suggested party founder Jerry Rawlings called for a coup to take power from the ruling government.
Source:
jfm
Lawyers deplore police brutalities in Wa
WA, April 5, GNA -
The Upper West Regional Branch of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) has urged authorities in the region to institute a high powered Committee of Enquiry into events that led to the death of Bashirudeen Said, a student of Wa Polytechnic, on March 26 and bring the culprits to justice.
Addressing a news conference at Wa on Thursday, Mr Edward Amadu Mumuni, Community Relations Officer of the Upper West GBA, said the people of Wa and the region as a whole were being subjected to a level of police brutalities unprecedented and unknown in other parts of the country.
"The perception the general public in the region have about the police is that there is a different law in Wa pertaining to traffic regulations than obtains in other parts of Ghana."
In the latest incident, Bashirudeen was allegedly carrying his girl friend on a motorbike as pillion when some policemen on patrol ordered him to stop for apparently not wearing a crash helmet.
He slowed down but refused to stop, so policeman pushed him and the pillion into the gutter. He fell, broke his neck and died instantly while the pillion was rendered unconscious.
Recounting some of the recent deaths from police brutalities on motor bike riders in Wa, Mr Mumuni said last year a student of the Wa campus of the University of Development Studies, riding a motorbike, was pursued by the police using their "Black Maria" and in an attempt to forcibly compel him to stop, the student was pushed into a gutter leading to his death.
On January, 2005 policemen on duty at the Wa traffic lights allegedly shot a young man at point blank range, killing him instantly for apparently not wearing a crash helmet and that led to public outcry and rioting in the town.
To quell the outcry, a committee was set up but nothing more was heard of the committee and there is no evidence that charges were laid against the perpetrators of the offence.
"The behaviour of the police in the region is making them enemies of the people rather than their protectors and this does not augur well for security in the region."
They said the attitude of the police towards the general public was brutal and oppressive and they behaved like they are an "occupation force".
The association also took issue with the continued presence of military personnel in Wa and called on the authorities to rationalize and justify their presence or otherwise ask for their withdrawal to their mother units elsewhere in the country.
The lawyers appealed to the youth of the area and the general public to remain calm whilst awaiting the response of the authorities on the matter.
Source:
GNA
KNUST students arrested for piracy
Kumasi, April 5, GNA -
Police at Sofoline in Kumasi have arrested two students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), for allegedly pirating the works of some musicians in the country.
Ebenezer Larkai Quaye and Samuel Antwi Boasiako, both Bachelor of Science, Planning, students were arrested by a joint police and anti piracy taskforce of the Ghana Association of Phonographic Industry (GAPI) and the Musician Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) in a house at Ayeduase, near the KNUST.
The joint security team retrieved four computer system units, four keyboards a television set, two mouse and 37 assorted pirated compact discs (CDs) from the room of the suspects.
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Ameyaw Afriyie, Sofoline District Police Commander, who confirmed the arrest to the Ghana News Agency in Kumasi on Thursday, said the suspects were picked-up in their hideout at Ayeduase on Tuesday evening upon a tip-off. He said they had been granted police inquiry bail while arrangements were underway to arraign them.
Source:
GNA
Ghanaians advised to handle new currency with care
Kumawu (Ash), April 5, GNA - Ghanaians have been advised not to rush to change their old currencies for new ones when the re-denomination exercise takes off in July.
Mr Emmanuel Aboagye-Okyere, Sekyere East District Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), gave the advice at a sensitisation programme at Bodomase near Kumawu on Tuesday.
The programme organized jointly by the NCCE and the Bank of Ghana (BoG) was aimed at educating the public on the transitional process of the re-denomination of the new currency.
He said the exercise was neither a devaluation nor revaluation of the cedis.
Mr Aboagye-Okyere emphasized that the change would reduce inflation and the problem of carrying large quantities of the cedi notes to and from the banks for easy transactions.
He admonished the citizenry to respect the currency by not soiling or defacing it and urged traders, mechanics and workers to cultivate the habit to save with the banks. Other communities toured to educate the people on the re-denomination included Apemso, Asokore, Drobonso, Sekyere, Woraso and Senchi.
Source:
GNA