NDC Govt Squanders And Gambles With $52million Saltpond Oil Revenue

The former Deputy Minister of Energy, who doubles as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Adanse Asokwa in the Ashanti region, K. T. Hammond has categorically stated that National Democratic Congress (NDC) government has squandered and gambled with $52 million generated as revenue from the Saltpond oilfield. According to him, NDC bought three dilapidated rigs worth 96 billion for oil extraction at Saltpond but they faded out in the least possible time due to the lack of knowledge on the part of the government. The MP made this known at a three-day seminar organized by Central Regional Youth Wing of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to enlighten the youth on the party�s structures and strategies to be used to recapture all the 19 seats in the region in the next general elections. Recently, a leading member of the NDC, Moses Asaga accused the NPP of misusing revenue generated from the Saltpond oilfield during its tenure and charged Ghanaians to reject them in 2012 since they could not even manage a small oilfield. The former minister stated that since NDC is a visionless party with visionless president, it ministers always troop to radio stations to lambast the former ministers of state without concentrating on how best to manage the country. The former minister alleged that Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata and NDC government gave free fuel to the government of Republic of Cuba without taking a penny since Cuba provided Ghana with a fuel tank worth $17 million. �The Atta Mills government will go down in the annals of this country as the most useless government Ghana has ever had. Kufuor�s administration had no single minister insulting a fellow. Never,� he said. Mr. Hammond added that he travelled across the globe to solicit funds to pay the President of Angola every month to destroy the ramshackle rig deep sea to prevent any harmful outcome. The MP however expressed shock about the way in which Mr. Asaga accused the NPP of mismanaging the Saltpond oilfield. Mr. Hammond however advised Asaga to confront Tsikata who incurred 47 million as debt while he was in charge of Ghana National Petroleum Council (GNPC) and claimed the council used the money to set up cocoa farms which cannot be seen anywhere in the country. Mr. Hammond therefore appealed to the NPP youth to take their studies seriously and respect the party structures. He stressed the need for NPP youth to go all out and solicit votes for the party to win the 2012 general elections. He promised to continue to support the youth wing to secure victory for the party�s flag bearer, Nana Addo Akufo Addo in the 2012 general elections. The Central Regional Youth Organizer of the party, Francis Edjaku Donkoh said NPP is ever ready to battle the ruling NDC and called on NPP members to defend the �All die be die� statement the flag bearer of the party, Nana Akufo Addo to show that NPP does not fear the NDC irrespective of its bad governance. Mr. Edjaku Donkoh noted that because members of the NPP have failed to respond to the unnecessary pronouncement about their flag bearer for sometime now, NDC believes the NPP is afraid of them. He added that the NPP will now counteract the negative propaganda of the NDC and disclosed that the regional party secretariat has put necessary strategies in place to ensure that NPP recaptures all the lost seats and maintain the few ones in the region. He urged members of the NDC to preach peace rather than war, saying Ghanaians will not forgive the NDC should they allow the country to be plunged into chaos due to their unruly behaviour. On his part, a Secretary to the Events and Organizations Committee of the NPP youth wing, Kweku Agya revealed that Ghanaians are ready to vote out the Mill administration.