Be honest to Ghanaians on dumsor - NDC man to govt

He said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government is being dishonest with truth on the power challenges with the Ghanaian populace.

Speaking on Citi FM in Accra, Mr. Agbana said it is important for Ghanaians to know that we are currently in a dumsor era.

Mr. Agbana explained that the erstwhile Mahama-led administration was blamed for the situation when it occurred and that the Akufo-Addo government should not shy away from its responsibility.

“When we (NDC) were in power, and we said we were introducing some plants and all of that to curtail the problem. We were blamed and chastised for it but today this government has demonstrated that they are not capable of handling the sector. So we are faced with a challenge and GRIDCo is being used as a caveat to provide some ridiculous explanations to take the government out of the blame but GRIDCo was there when Mr. Mahama was President and ECG was there when Mr. Mahama was President.”

“When it was under him, it was called dumsor, and he was blamed for it even when he was showing clear signs of leadership. So let it be said, and it’s the fact that before the NDC left office in 2017, we solved dumsor. So this government should admit that it has failed miserably in the sector and be bold to tell Ghanaians that dumsor is back.”

Energy Minister, Matthew Opoku Prempeh Pulse Ghana

He also dispelled the claim by GRIDCO and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) that the nation is facing power challenges due to maintenance works.

“There are a few reasons why we are in this dumsor now. The government is highly indebted to some stakeholders or institutions within the power sector. The truth is that, in the last four years, because of the huge debt that the government owed GRIDCo and the government’s inability to fulfil its financial obligation to GRIDCo, it couldn’t carry out any maintenance on its systems.”

“This maintenance issue is not like a vehicle that, if maybe you are not watching, all of a sudden it breaks down. They (GRIDCo) have a control system that alerts them about challenges, so how did we wait to get here if it’s just about scheduled maintenance? So the truth is that the government’s huge indebtedness in the energy sector accounts for this”, he added.