The Member of Parliament for Bongo and a member of the 12-member committee set up by President John Dramani Mahama to avert a looming energy crisis, Edward Abambire Bawa, has claimed that the country does not have the strategic fuel reserves required for national security purposes.

He made this claim on TV3’s The KeyPoint programme on January 11, 2024, while responding to a question from co-panellist lawyer Martin Kpebu.

Kpebu had asked why the country could not rely on strategic fuel reserves to address what has been described as a looming energy crisis, attributed to the Akufo-Addo government’s failure to purchase fuel for the nation’s energy needs.

Edward Bawa stated that the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST), which is mandated to store a certain percentage of fuel for national security purposes, had not been fulfilling this responsibility.

“My brother, if you want me to be blunt, BOST was never putting any storage down… Usually, we say for the strategic stock, we should have at least six weeks of reserves. The truth of the matter is that BOST was never doing that.

“If you look at what civil society and others always say—that BOST should move away from competing with the BDCs and instead focus on executing their mandate of being strategic stockholders—unfortunately, we do not have that.

“Indeed, if we look at the current situation…SEND Power had diesel that could take us up to 20-something days, but that will not be enough,” he added.

His statement infuriated the other panellists on the show, who were shocked to learn that the country had no reserve fuel to rely on in the event of an emergency.

Watch a video of Edward Bawa's remarks below:

More fire 🔥 Take your time and watch how Hon. Edward Bawah @edabambirebawa MP for Bongo constituency and Energy spokesperson for the NDC exposes the incompetent NPP and what happened during the TRANSITION meeting with Akufo-Addo. NPP NEVER 👎 AGAIN pic.twitter.com/hb3HVn4mxG

— Aristotlektv (@aristotledada) January 11, 2025