Members of the Minority in Parliament have urged the House leadership to summon the Minister of Energy, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, to explain the government’s efforts in addressing the recent power outages.
Alhassan Suhuyini, the MP for Tamale North, expressed concern on Friday, March 1, over the adverse effects of the power cuts on households and businesses.
He made the appeal during the presentation of the business statement for the upcoming year.
“Many people and businesses are unable to plan their activities and their programmes and they also sometimes have to find extra money to power their generators for their businesses and many people do not know what is happening.
“They are told that there are planned and unplanned programmes and load is being shed, so it is important that the leadership of the House makes it possible for the Energy Minister to brief the House next week on the power situation and why fellow countrymen and women have to deal with the on and off situation. Ghanaians need to understand why they sleep in darkness.”
Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, the MP for Tamale Central, recounted a disturbing incident where a National Service Personnel got trapped in one of Parliament’s elevators during a power outage. He demanded that Ghanaians be kept informed about developments in the power sector.
“My issue has to do with the erratic power supply. Just two days ago, there was a National Service Personnel who was trapped in one of the lifts when the power went off. She was traumatized when she finally exited the lift and so are we able to quantify the psychological trauma that people go through as a result of this and so it is essential that the Minister for Energy responds to this House to explain to us so we can explain to our constituents what is happening.”