General News of Thursday, 5 April 2007

Source: jfm

We don't need NDC's advice -Minister

Deputy Energy Minister, K. T. Hammond, has rubbished suggestions that the opposition National Democratic Congress has alternative solutions to offer the nation on the current energy crisis.

He said the NDC would better keep their solutions to themselves if people like Dr. Ampofo were party to the so-called solutions.

Reacting to suggestions by Dr Kwame Ampofo, MP for South Dayi and an Energy on an Accra-based radio station - JOYFM - the Deputy Minister said the NDC’s supposed solutions are hollow and full of mere pontificating, and he was not surprised because the likes of Dr. Ampofo made inputs to the solutions.

He said Dr. Ampofo is bankrupt in energy ideas and Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills would have done better if he had written his statement all by himself.

The NDC on Wednesday held a press conference addressed by its flagbearer, Prof. Mills at which it offered to put a team of energy experts at the disposal of the government in finding a solution to the energy crisis.

Dr. Ampofo had said that he had long held that sourcing power from Nigeria was an impossibility and doubted who advised President Kufuor that Ghana should procure power from that country who themselves have problems with their power generation and distribution.

President Kufuor had told Parliament in his State of the Nation address that Ghana was expecting power from Nigeria.

Dr. Ampofo said perhaps whoever contracted the deal had spoken to a lowly-placed technical staff in the Nigeria power generation outfit hence the conviction that Ghana could receive help.

Dr. Hammond said the NPP had not sat idle and even though it knew the Akosombo Dam was to lose some level of water, it did not expect the level to be this biting.

He said the government would welcome all suggestions to fix the problem but the “NDC paper is full of lies” and it was a very lousy job.