The Minority in Parliament has blasted the John Atta Mills led administration over the recent fuel price hikes, saying the price increases are a direct opposite of a major campaign promise made in the run up to the 2008 general election to reduce fuel prices.
According to the NPP MPs, the increment clearly shows that the NDC “lied its way to win political power.”
On Monday, January 3, 2011 prices of petroleum products went up by between 20 to 30 percent. In a statement, the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) cited international crude prices, which are currently above 90 dollars a barrel, as basis for the price increases at the pump. However, at a press conference Wednesday January 5, 2011, the Minority NPP said the price increases were unjustified.
Minority Spokesperson on Energy, Hon Joseph Kofi Addah, who addressed the media, accused the government of demonstrating serious lack of transparency and incompetence in the management of the nation’s petroleum sector, citing the government’s decision to enter into a 6 month rolling hedging contract.
“In October 2010 the NDC said it had dealt with this problem by hedging all the prices of crude oil purchases to protect Ghanaians from increases in global prices of crude oil. If Ghanaians were indeed protected against any further price increases through these hedges then why do we so soon have to pay high prices because of global prices increases? The Mills-Mahama administration has been untruthful to Ghanaians”.
Hon Joseph Kofi Adda charged the NDC government to explain to Ghanaians how well the hedging has fared since it was started in October 2010. “The NDC owes it to Ghanaians to come clean on why the hedging was decided upon as well as how it has performed since 2010. In this context it needs to be established whether we have gained or lost”.
Hon Kofi Addah said President Mills must be bold and apologise to Ghanaians for misleading them to elect the NDC to manage the country. “We the NPP are of the view that clearly the NDC deliberately chose to deceive Ghanaians into believing that they (NDC) could really reduce petroleum prices so that they could be voted into office”.