Parliament okays Owusu-Adjapong, four judges

Accra, June 3, GNA - Parliament on Tuesday approved Mr. Felix Owusu-Adjapong Member of Parliament for Akim Swedru as Minister of Energy.

It also approved the nomination of four Appeal Court Judges: Mr. Justice Anin Yeboah; Mr. Justice Victor Mawulom Dotse; Mr Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie and Ms Justice Constance Owusu as Supreme Court Judges. The Appointments Committee of Parliament, which vetted the Energy Minister Designate, noted that the Nominee met the requirements of the Constitution and discharged himself creditably before the Committee and by consensus, approved his nomination.

In a contribution on the floor, members praised the performance of Mr. Owusu-Adjapong and urged him on to leave up to the challenges of his new Ministry.

Mr Joseph Henry Mensah, NPP-Sunyani East, noted that the six months left for the Nominee before the general elections was not enough to establish anything new in the Ministry. He however, urged the Minister not to be perturbed by conservatism, adding that Ghana was economically matured to own and operate a nuclear plant.

Mr Mensah recalled that, he, together with Professor Daniel Adzei-Bekoe, Chairman of the Council of State had discussions with the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei when he visited Ghana a few years ago. He also urged Ghanaians to discard the notion that electricity should be free.

Mr. Moses Asaga, Ranking Member for Energy and MP for Nabdam who also endorsed the nomination, said Mr Owusu-Adjapong would have a lot to do in reconstructing the Ministry and added that, he would also be faced with other challenges as addressing oil price rises on the international market, completion of West African Gas Pipeline and maintaining a balance sheet of the Volta River Authority and the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR). He said the TOR was in a range of debt between 700 and 800 million dollars. Other contributors urged the Minister to clean the waste in the energy sector and ensure that electricity poles were evenly distributed and effectively utilized.