- says they do not care about plight of people

The general secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has alleged that more than five cabinet ministers in president Kufuor?s government and two leading members of his party are deeply involved in the petrol business in the country.

According to him, each of the five cabinet ministers and the two party functionaries have between one and three petrol filling stations across the country.

Nketia, also known as ?general mosquito?, said because these ministers were among the executive arm of the government, they usually had the fore knowledge of any increase in fuel prices and quickly rushed to Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) in advance to load the commodity in large quantities for their filling stations in order to make super-normal profits.

General Mosquito was speaking at a well-attended public forum organized by the Committee for Joint Action (CJA) at Abuesi near the Takoradi Thermal Plant at Aboadze in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis last Thursday.

He mentioned the names of all the ministers alleged to be involved in the petrol business and dared them to challenge him that they did not own petrol stations across the country. The names of the ministers are being withheld by The Chronicle for the time being.

According to the NDC general secretary, he had the names of the petrol stations owned by the cabinet ministers and their exact locations in the country, insisting he knew what he was talking about.

He further alleged that a new petrol station, owned by a leading member of parliament, was currently under construction at Takoradi.

He noted that owning fuel stations in itself was not bad, but for cabinet ministers who set the price for the commodity and for that matter have fore knowledge of new prices before they become public, to be deeply involved in the fuel business, was his concern. He wondered whether the government would think about the plight of the suffering masses if cabinet ministers themselves had turned a sensitive area like petroleum products into a lucrative business, which they are ardently operating.

Asiedu Nketiah told the crowd that it was not only the fuel industry that ministers in the current government had monopolized and that the behavior was pervasive in almost all sectors of the economy.

He insisted it was even worse in the cocoa industry, which has been completely taken over by government functionaries.

As a result, he said trucks that did not belong to ministers operating in the sector are left to their fate or stranded at the ports for several days before getting offloaded.

The same thing, he continued, was going on at TOR where preference is usually given to tankers that are loading fuel to stations owned by the ministers or members of parliament.

He also mentioned the premix fuel industry as another area where members in government are making lucrative businesses at the expense of the poor fishermen. All the CJA members surrounded General Mosquito while he spoke, stressing that there are so many bad things going on in president Kufuor?s government, but for which he always asked for evidence when reported to him.

According to the NDC general secretary, though it is an undeniable fact that prices of petroleum products have gone up on the international market, Ghanaians would not have been called to pay the price they are now paying if the government had not loaded the sector with so many taxes that constituted about 40% of the current price.

A leading member of the CJA, Mr. Kwesi Pratt Junior, also accused the government of being insensitive to the plight of the people because anytime prices of petroleum products went up, gold, which Ghana also has the privilege to produce, followed suit. He therefore did not understand the reason why government could not use the huge profit made from gold to balance off fuel.

He contended that the increase in fuel prices was not necessary because Ghana was buying the commodity from neighboring Nigeria at a price far lower than what pertained in other parts of the world. He said but for so many taxes that had been added on, a gallon of petrol could be sold for between 18 and 20,000 cedis and the economy would still not suffer.

Kwesi Pratt noted that with all these huge taxes being collected from Ghanaians, government officials are saying there is no money, and yet the son of the president was able to mobilize as much as $3million from banks in the country to buy a hotel, questioning why he didn?t buy a hotel when his father was not the president of Ghana?

He urged the people not to allow themselves to be used by few individuals to achieve their selfish gains of enriching themselves, whilst they wallowed in abject poverty.

Other members of the CJA who spoke at the forum were Mr. Bernard Monna, Madam Ama Beyinwa Doe, Ms. Emelia Arthur and Mr. Ato Ahwoi, who expressed surprised at Asiedu Nketia?s revelation, that ministers in government owned petrol filling stations across the country.

?I was secretary for fuel for so many years during which time I shared filling stations to individuals in the country but I never dreamt of owning one,? he said.

During questions time, the people raised concerns about the constant hike in petrol prices, which they said was killing the fishing industry ? their only source of livelihood.

They also expressed concerns about the frequent power outages in the area though the Takoradi Thermal Plant is situated on their land and few kilometers away from the village.