The deep involvement of close families, political and business cronies of President Akufo-Addo in the current New Patriotic Party administration from its inception in January 2017 to date has refused to die down.
The debilitating effect it has on our economy and to a large extent our national survival has become a bitter topic on the mouths of many Ghanaians as we head into the December 2020 general elections.
In what began like a Kumawood movie, president Akuffo Addo and his de facto-prime minister-cousin Gabby Asare Otchere Darko stage-managed the running down of Ghana’s energy sector through a dark concessionaire agreement with a hurriedly formed consortium, Power Distribution Services (PDS). Eyebrows were raised against this grand mafia scheme allegedly involving sophisticated family members of the President like the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta and Gabby Asare Otchere Darko. These folks were unperturbed when there was national outcry against their clear national robbery scheme.
PDS came to take over the electricity distribution in the southern part of the country from the Electricity Company of Ghana. After millions of Cedis were milked from poor Ghanaian pockets, alarm began to blow when a barber whose name was used to loot majority shares decided to take more booty. Revelations emerged from their conversations about how to share the spoils from the syndicated operation. The president was ominously exposed as the nation roared against his administration for the grand theft.
President Akufo-Addo refused to heed to calls for the cancellation of the stinking PDS deal. He rather jetted off to Angola to seek another crony investor to take over the PDS under a new name. This failed as the citizens mounted more heat on the President. Finally in October last year, a grand scheme was designed to deceive Ghanaians that the PDS-ECG concessionaire agreement was cancelled. Ghana lost a whopping $190million from the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a second tranche of allocations meant for Ghana to improve its energy sector.
The unexpected development injuriously dazed the Akuffo Addo administration to continue to hide the real status of PDS in the country from the people. Information about PDS assets are scarce to obtain. The Electricity Company of Ghana issues PDS receipts to customers upon power purchase even though that consortium is legally dead as far as its agreement with ECG is concerned. How they continue to issue receipts is a mystery we do not understand yet.
Recently Independent Power Producers (IPPs) threatened to cut power supply and plunge the country into dumsor again. These providers were paid of all their debts by PDS we were told but today it is emanating from the horses’ own mouths that they are still owed monies purportedly settled by PDS. So the puzzling questions burdening everyone are:
- Is PDS working underground to milk the national system?
- Is it true the cronies behind this Babylonian consortium have been sharing booties suitcases in London from their midnight operations in Ghana?
- Is it not true that these dark activities of underground PDS are securing finances for Akuffo Addo to enable his greed to continue in an impossible power to perpetuate the obnoxious state capture he and his cohorts are managing?
- When will Ghanaians be freed from this scandalous thieving hegemony?
Well, the questions may not end but clearly an answer to the last one is automatic! 7th December, 2020 Ghanaians have an opportunity to remove the pampers from every bottom and discover the watery stools there and how they stink. God help us!
