General News of Monday, 28 February 2011

Source: GNA

Libya crisis won't affect Ghana's petroleum supply - Veep

Vice President John Dramani Mahama has stated that the political crisis in Libya and other North African countries would not affect the supply of petroleum products in the country.

“However, as Libya is a member of oil Producing and exporting countries (OPEC), persistent troubles in the area could subsequently have a negative effect on the global supply of the products in other countries including Ghana in the long-run.”

Vice Pesident who was speaking to journalists at Kumasi at the end of his five-day official visit to some parts of the Northern, Brong Ahafo and Ashanti Regions said apart from Libya that supplied petroleum products to Ghana, government had also established bilateral agreements with Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea to sustain a constant supply of the products.

The Vice President last Wednesday joined the chiefs and people of Gonjaland to celebrate their annual Yagbon Damba at Damongo in the Northern Region, inaugurated a 40-seater ICT Centre at Bole Senior High School on Thursday and addressed the Church of Pentecost’s Goka praying Camp annual re-opening in the Brong Ahafo Region on Friday.

He also joined the people of Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly to clean and desilt some choked gutters in the Metropolis before joining the staff and students of Ejisuman Senior High to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the school in Ejisu in the Ashanti Region.

Vice President Mahama said the government was working around the clock to peacefully evacuate all Ghanaians in Libya and called on all relevant agencies to expedite action to ensure an incident free evacuation.

He said it was unfortunate that such uprisings had occurred in that region and hoped there would be acceptable measures that would calm down the nerves of the combatants.

The Vice President gave the assurance that government would do everything possible to ensure a sustainable supply of petroleum products and called on Ghanaians to pray for people of North Africa to finally come out of their political predicament.