The Ashanti regional branch of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has questioned the rationale behind the re-commissioning and renaming component of AMERI Power Plant, following its location to the Ashanti region.
The party’s communication bureau has expressed worry about the development, which the NDC claims is yet another deception on the part of a dishonest and incompetent Akufo-Addo/Bawumia Government.
The facility, which has already been commissioned, has been christened Kumasi 1 Thermal Power Plant (K1TPP) and scheduled to be re-commissioned today, Wednesday, April 17, 2024 at Anwomaso in the Ashanti Region.
Abass Nurudeen Esq, the Regional Communication officer of the NDC, at a press conference yesterday, explained that the Ameri Power Plant was one of the many bold interventions by the erstwhile Mahama administration to decisively solve the dumsor conundrum that had plagued the country since the days of President Kufuor.
According to him, the Ameri Power Plant was procured in 2015 under a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer arrangement to produce a total of 250 megawatts of power to shore up Ghana’s energy generation capacity, and ensure adequate and sustainable power supply.
He noted that under the said arrangement, Ghana was to take full ownership of the 250 megawatt capacity power plant, after paying $510 million within a five year period.
He noted that at the time the deal was negotiated and concluded, the New Patriotic Party, led by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, were all over the place claiming that the Ameri deal was fraught with corruption and that a future NPP government would review and possibly abrogate the deal.
He stressed that in a dramatic turn of events and contrary to their promise whilst in opposition, President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Bawumia in 2018 ended up inflating the deal to the tune of $800 million and extended the contract duration from 5 to 15 years, much to the disadvantage of the good people Ghana.
He said when that daylight robbery was exposed through the vigilance of NDC Minority in Parliament, President Akufo-Addo openly admitted that he had been misled and caused the resignation of the then Energy Minister, Mr. Boakye Agyarko, to cover up his (Nana Akufo-Addo) guilt.
According to him, having failed in all their endeavors to bastardise the Ameri deal, engineered by the visionary and Nation Builder John Mahama to end the age-old dumsor menace, President Akufo-Addo and Dr. Bawumia are now seeking to obliterate his enduring legacies in the energy sector.
One of such move is the scheduled re-commissioning and renaming of the Ameri Power Plant planned for Wednesday,17th April, 2024 at Anwomaso in the Oforikrom Municipality, in the Ashanti Region.
The Ashanti Regional communication officer indicated that some questions many Ghanaians want an answer are; why the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government would waste scarce resources to re-commission a power plant that had already been commissioned in 2015 and
why the government intends to change the name of the power plant from Ameri to K1TPP.
The NDC also queried how a mere re-commissioning and renaming of the power plant from Ameri to K1TPP could help resolve the financial crisis that is identified to be the main cause of the dumsor that Ghanaians are presently experiencing.
He also questioned how the mere relocation of the Ameri Power plant from Aboadze in the Western Region to Kumasi cost $35million, which is over three times more than the $10 million Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Asantehene, is soliciting to renovate the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.
Nurudeen Abass claimed the NPP was only seeking to rebrand and take credit for most of the projects initiated by the visionary John Mahama, just to create a false sense of performance.
According to the NDC executive, when dumsor was collapsing businesses of inhabitants of the Ashanti Region and beyond, it was the bold and decisive step of John Mahama to bring in the Ameri Power plant to save the situation and that, this intervention continues to sustain the energy sector.
He urged the good people of Ashanti Region to keep faith with President John Mahama in the upcoming elections, as he represents the safest and most experienced pair of hands to lead Ghana “out of the current economic quagmire we have been plunged into by the clueless, dishonest and incompetent Akufo-Addo and Bawumia government.”
