NAPO is liability, he’s insensitive to plight of Ghanaians – Gbande

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has requested the Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, to step down following his remarks on the ‘dumsor’ timetable that Ghanaians are seeking.

Dr. Opoku Prempeh, the Energy Minister, dismissed the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission’s (PURC) request for a load-shedding timetable, a critical need as the country faces an unstable power supply.

The PURC had instructed the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to provide a load management timetable by 2 April 2024, considering the ongoing electricity supply issues.

However, Dr. Opoku Prempeh questioned the need for such a timetable. Dr. Prempeh challenged those advocating for the ECG to issue a load-shedding timetable to publish their own proposed schedules.

At the inauguration of the NPP campaign team in the Ashanti Region on Monday, he urged critics to create their own timetable if they believe it’s necessary.

The NDC criticized the Minister’s remarks, describing them as reckless. Mustapha Gbande, Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, expressed the party’s disappointment with Dr. Opoku Prempeh’s response to the PURC’s directive in a Citi News interview on Monday.

He suggested that Dr. Prempeh’s comments reflect the quality of individuals serving in President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s government.

“I think I saw Napo’s face, and I saw him grant the interview. You could easily associate that to a man who is frustrated because, obviously, he may not be given the running mate or a man who is drunk. Otherwise, on a clean face of an energy minister who owes responsibility to the people of Ghana to explain to Ghanaians the energy crisis, we don’t make this kind of commentary. They are very unfortunate. They are very irrational. They are very insensitive to the plight of Ghanaians. I was in Oti region over the weekend. It is ‘adomdomadomdom.’ You can’t even power your air condition. Ghanaians are crying and asking that give us a timetable so that we can rationalise our businesses in accordance with the timetable, and you are insulting them.”

“These are the kinds of men that President Akufo-Addo have. This is the kind of liability they have imposed on the finances of this country, who continue to freeze and get paid with taxpayers’ money only to come and spill baggage and irresponsibility back to the people of Ghana… It is clear that we have a useless government in place. We have a bunch of people who do not have the capacity and intellectuality to understand the economy and the problems surrounding it. Let him be responsible. Clearly, the energy minister is not responsible.

—citinewsroom