Explanation for erratic power cuts ‘cock and bull story’ – Amaliba

File Photo: [L-R] Bright Nana Amfoh, Abraham Amaliba & Richard Ahiagbah on TV3 New Day[/caption]A member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) legal team, Abraham Amaliba, has described as false, the explanation by the Energy Minister, John Peter Amewu, regarding the recent power outages in parts of the country. Unannounced power fluctuations for the last four days has heightened fears of a possible return of erratic power supply in the country, similar to what was experienced in 2014 due to supply shortfalls. The minority in parliament have since Thursday accused government of mismanagement of the power sector leading to what  it said was ‘dumsor’, and also asked for the resignation of Mr Amewu who took over the affairs of the power sector in late last year. But the minister explained the outages which caused many people to sleep in darkness was due to technical challenges arising out of a power trip on some of GRIDCo’s transmission lines. He explained Thursday that a relocation of some transmission lines to pave the way for construction work on the Pokuase interchange triggered the tripping of the lines. Mr Amewu however assured Ghanaians power will be restored by March 19. “Definitely because of the construction work that is going on [at Pokuase] there is a need for them [companies in the power distribution chain] to halt the transmission of power for this period. “So these are some of the problems they are facing. You can see the progress of work and my expectation is that it is going to be completed within about five days. But we’ve put in measures to minimize the impact. This is one of the major causes of interruptions. The problem has been caused by technical issues,” Mr Amewu assured Ghanaians. Speaking on TV3’s New Day Friday, Mr. Amaliba said Ghanaians cannot take the minister’s word for it because “I think that what the minister is saying is a cock and bull story”. He argued the government had promised Ghanaians an enhanced service prior to the Power Distribution Services (PDS) taking over the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG). “Cock and bull because we were told that when PDS takes over ECG, there will be some enhancement in the services they provide. “If this has happened [power outages] and the minister now comes back to tell us the same things that ECG used to tell us, I will say you take his side of the story as not the truth,” he reiterated. According to Mr. Amaliba, the problem of erratic power supply is the question of finance. “The truth of the matter is the inability to pay for crude, the inability to pay the independent power producers to produce electricity,” he noted. Amaliba doubted if Ghana has made any progress with the ECG concession which saw the takeover of ECG by PDS. By 3news.com|Ghana]]>