Former President John Dramani Mahama has no moral right to criticize the government following the recent power cuts in parts of the country, a Deputy Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Ernest Owusu-Bempah, has said.
He accused Mr Mahama of creating problems in the power sector when he was i office.
“Today the amount of debt that the power purchasing agreements that he signed, under his watch, he signed 25 power purchasing agreements within two years which cost the taxpayer almost about 800 million dollars. Akufo-Addo is paying for that and Mahama is benefitting. So he has no right to tell us how the country’s power situation should be handled,” he said while addressing the media on Friday January 12.
Regarding the power cuts that have been attributed to the inability of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to fulfill its payment obligations to the West Africa Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCo), he said”Today there is a serious problem with WAPCo, there is a little bit of arrears.”
Owusu-Bempah was replying Mr Mahama who had indicated that the government is returning the country to the days of severe power crisis christened ‘Dumsor’.
Speaking at a stakeholder meeting with members of the NDC during his “Building Ghana Tour” at Sogakope in the Volta Region, Mr Mahama said “Today ‘dumsor’, they’re treating it like a football because he wants to kick it over the 7th January 2025 line and hand the trouble over to somebody else, and yet we resolved it before they came into office.”
But Owusu-Bempah said major interventions introduced by the Akufo-Addo administration upon assumption of office in 2017 ended dumsor.
For instance, he said, regarding the gas flow Atuabo Gas Plant, the Mahama administration did 98 million cubic feet but today, the Akufo-Addo government is doing almost 150 million cubic feet.
He therefore expressed surprise that the NDC and their flagbearer Former President John Dramani Mahama are criticising the government for the power cuts that were experienced in parts of the country recently.
“I feel a little bit surprised to hear from a former President who supervised an erratic power supply for a period of 4 years. For four years the whole nation saw how the country turned dumsor yet he has the effrontery to tell the people of Ghana that he has the solution and that we don’t have a solution to the problem, he should bow his head down in shame,” he said.
He added “The major intervention introduced by the NPP government resolved the Dumsor. First, Ghana Gas, the gas flow Atuabo processing plant, we were doing 98 million cubic feet when the NDC was in power, today we are doing almost 150 million cubic feet. Apart from that the ENI, Sankofa gas contract that they signed became one of the most expensive gas contracts in the world, 10 dollars per MMB Cude was signed by Mahama himself.
“We had no choice but to combine Sankofa, Jubilee, and Tweneboa Enyenra Ntomme (TEN) oil fields. Today we did what we call Sanzule tie in and we are flowing almost 350 million cubic feet to Aboadze.
“Today, we have done what we call reverse flow, Mahama could not do the reverse flow. Today, we are pushing gas to the eastern enclave supplying our thermal plants in the eastern enclave of the country giving them about 250 and 300 megawatts of generation.
“The Kar Power that he brought into this country that is milking the country, today are pushing gas there which is also giving us almost 400MW of electricity.”