Reduce Fuel Prices!. Court Orders NPA

AN ACCRA Court of Appeal presided over by Justice Henrietta Abban has ordered the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) to reduce, without any further delay, petroleum prices by the illegal price margins it imposed. This follows the refusal of the National Petroleum Authority to remove illegally-imposed margins from the prices of fuel. Sitting with Justices Kusi, Appiah and Ayebi, Justice Abban�s court refused the application for stay of execution brought by the NPA, which sought to stay execution of a High Court judgement in November 2011. The judgement had ordered that the illegal price margins disguised by the NPA as �ex-refinery differential� should be knocked off the prices of fuel. The High Court had further ordered the NPA to publish the total amount collected from the illegal imposition and pay it into the Consolidated Fund. Immediately after the High Court�s decision in November 2011, the NPA applied to the same court for stay of execution of the judgement. By that application, the NPA was seeking the permission of the court to continue charging the illegal margins while it appealed against the judgement. On 24th January 2012, the High Court refused to grant the stay of execution and asked the NPA to go and do as it had directed. But in February 2012, the NPA proceeded to the Court of Appeal for the same stay of execution. The plaintiffs, Kwaku Kwarteng (the NPP parliamentary candidate for Obuasi), Abdul Ganiyu of Tamale and Development Data, filed a counter affidavit praying the Court of Appeal to compel the NPA to obey the court order before pursuing its appeal. Recently, the Court of Appeal backed the High Court�s ruling and refused the NPA�s application for stay of execution, awarding a cost of GH�500 to the plaintiffs. Thus, so far, five different judges have ordered the NPA to reduce fuel prices by the illegal margins and pay the accumulated amount into the Consolidated Fund.