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Ghana’s Members of Parliament were Wednesday afternoon forced to suspend sitting after the country’s crippling power challenges hit the House.
The main chamber of Parliament was plunged into total darkness leaving MPs loiterring about waiting for power to be restored to the House.
The lights went off at 11:50am Wednesday during a deliberation on a loan agreement.
This is a reminder of the worsening state of Ghana’s energy crisis which as persisted since 2012.
New Patriotic Party MP, Justice Joe Appiah, described the incident as “very embarrassing” and “unprecedented.” The opposition MP wondered how the House could be in darkness for an hour.
Chairman of the Mines and Energy Committee Alhaji Amadu Sorogo explained that checks with Electricity Company of Ghana shows that the Achimota sub-station has developed a fault.
No timeline has been given for the completion of repair works, the MP for Abokobi Madina revealed. He said technicians in parliament have also just informed the leadership that the generator has been faulty for the past two weeks.
According to Amadu Sorogo, the House was not informed of the problem until the Chamber was plunged in darkness.
This is the second time the House of Parliament is suffering this fate in less than six months.
During deliberations after the President’s State of the Nations Address in February, the power tripped and left the Chamber in darkness.
Last November, the Speaker of the House Edward Doe Adjaho expressed frustration at the persistent power cuts to Parliament and set up an adhoc committee to investigate frequent power cuts.
“This is the time for us to investigate this. It is unacceptable for us to continue going through this and we will investigate it”, he vowed.
He requested a report to be delivered to him in a week. His directive came after power cuts occured as the Speaker began prayers for proceedings to commence. It led to suspension of sitting for about an hour, the Daily Heritage reported.
Upon resumption, the power went off again when the Deputy Minister of Education, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, was responding to a question on the floor of the House.
The Chamber often has to rely on generators during the delivery of government’s budget statement and economic policy on Wednesday November 19, 2014
Source: Myjoyonline.com
