Power Minister lies

Minister Of Power, Dr. Kwabena Donkor, has incurred the wrath of some residents in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis for allegedly lying to them.

According to the residents, on the eve of Christmas last year, Dr. Donkor visited the Volta River Authority (VRA) and the Takoradi International Company (TiCO) at Aboadze.

During the visit, the minister gave the VRA a six-month ultimatum to end the country’s current power crisis or face the consequences.

The minister was at Aboadze to familiarise himself with the activities of VRA and TiCo, which offices are located at the fishing community.

He urged the VRA to put measures in place to end the current power crisis within six months.

The minister remarked that he would authorise all power generators at the various VRA bungalows and chief executive officers’ residences to be disconnected, if the crisis continued after the six month period.

The Takoradi residents were therefore astonished when they woke up yesterday morning to learn that the minister had indicated that the energy crisis would be over by the end of 2015 and that he would resign if it persisted.

Addressing a press conference in Accra on Monday, Dr. Kwabena Donkor indicated that the current load shedding exercise would come to an end this year.

Some residents of Takoradi who were expecting the power minister to repeat what he said at Aboadze were therefore furious because they say the minister should have been specific on the date the crisis would be over.

“If the minister says the crisis would be over this year, we want to know during which month exactly because our businesses are collapsing because of the erratic power supply,” one of them, who was apparently speaking the mind of the irate residents, pointed out.

Speaking in separate interviews, the visibly angry residents termed the minister a liar.

They could not fathom why he should visit Takoradi and tell the people that the problem would end in June 2015 and go to Accra to tell Ghanaians a different story.