Coronavirus: Prioritise power supply during lockdown – Minority

The Minority in parliament has urged the government to ensure that areas affected by the lockdown have constant power supply.

The side’s spokesperson on Mines and Energy, Adam Mutawakilu, in a statement said people working from home will need stable power supply to successfully execute their duties.

For this reason, he stated that, the unscheduled power cuts parts of the country have been experiencing for some time must not continue.

“Given that more Ghanaians will be staying and working in their various homes, and with kids having to connect with their academic tutors via e-learning platforms, reliable but stable supply of power is required to keep life together in times like this. By this statement, we request the President and by extension the government to assure Ghanaians of a stable supply of electricity in order to allow for life in their homes worthy to live,” the statement reads.

The MP further told Citi News in an interview that the country has enough capacity to generate power, hence the government shouldn’t complain about the unavailability of fuel in this period.

“The government should not complain of a lack of fuel and therefore, we should not expect the dumsor that we have been experiencing up until today to continue. That is why we are calling on Nana Akufo-Addo to make the constant supply of electricity a priority,” he said.

The government has downplayed the Minority’s calls for a load-shedding timetable as power cuts have been persisting in parts of the country for over a month now.

Despite blaming the lack of sustained financing to fuel the various dual power generation plants for some of the power cuts, GRIDCo has insisted that the cuts are not persistent.

President Akufo-Addo’s directive for a two-week partial lockdown in Accra, Tema, Kumasi and Kasoa took effect 1:00am on Monday as part of measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Majority of citizens in the affected areas which are part of the most densely popluted in the country have been advised to stay home if they don’t have essential activities to undertake in town.