(Minority raises concern about hike in fuel prices)

Page 16, June 11, 2009
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
THE Minority in Parliament has raised concerns about the recent 30 per cent increase in fuel prices and demanded an immediate explanation about the details of the build up that led to the increase.
“We demand of the Minister of Energy to immediately come to Parliament to inform the good people of Ghana about the build up in the petroleum prices”, the Members of Parliament (MPs) demanded.
At a press conference in Parliament yesterday addressed by the Minority Ranking Member on Energy, Mr Joseph Kofi Addah, they noted that as a result of the 30 per cent hike in fuel prices, taxi and tro-tro fares for the ordinary people had gone up by 17 per cent while prices of basic items in the markets had also shot up.
“Instead of Ghanaians having money in their pockets as candidate Mills promised in his electioneering campaigns, we now have a situation where what we have in our pockets…. is being taken away”, he stressed.
Mr Addah, who was a Minister of Energy in the Kufuor government, said the current situation was not only a far cry from the paradise promised by the National Democratic Congress (NDC), but it was also a pathetic and grievous insult to Ghanaians who had been grossly deceived by “the politricks of Professor Mills”.
He said if an “insensitive” NPP government sold petrol at GH¢5.80 per gallon when oil was selling at $149.00 per barrel, why is a “sensitive” and “caring” government of NDC sell petrol at GH¢5.1 per gallon when oil is selling at just $65.00 per barrel.
“Let Prof Mills tell us how much his government will sell petroleum products at the world market price of cruse oil should hit $147 per barrel at least, to enable Ghanaians to prepare immediately”, he asked.
Mr Addah questioned whether Prof Mills promised Ghanaians that his government would increase price of fuel because of Teman Oil Refinery (TOR) debt and alleged mismanagement of NPP, adding that was the then candidate Mills aware that TOR had always been in debt since the late 1980s.
He stated that Ghanaians had overnight realised that they were hookwind, explaining that the Minority was aware of a song which had started making waves with lyrics such as “Atta adaadaa yen agyegye yen akoku yen”, literally meaning, Atta had deceived and killed us”.
He called on Ghanaians to gird their loins and be resolute by beginning to count the broken promises and the betrayal of trust by Prof Mills, who according to him, rode on the crest wave of relieving the hardships that had been allegedly inflicted on them by the NPP.
Mr Addah advised the Committee for Joint Action (CJA), a political pressure group, to mobilise Ghanaians to go on the streets to condemn the insensitivity of the NDC as it did against the NPP when fuel prices were increased.