Vice President Bawumia confers with President Akufo-Addo at a function
• The NDC want answers from the government over recent increases in fuel prices
• They aver that the government is insensitive to the suffering of citizens
• The party is also accusing the government of using deception to win the 2016 polls
The main opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC, is demanding political and economic answers from the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government.
At the heart of their question is a 2016 campaign mantra that Ghana was sitting on wealth but Ghanaians were hungry. The NDC wants the almost five-year-old Akufo-Addo government to reveal the money Ghana was sitting on under Mahama.
The NDC on Monday, October 18, 2021, held a press conference to primarily address the issues of persistent increases in the price of fuel in recent times.
The conference addressed by National Communications Officer, Sammy Gyamfi, also afforded the party to raise other issues of public interest.
“The question we would want to ask President Akufo-Addo and his “419” Vice President, Dr. Bawumia is; what has happened to their much-touted promise to move Ghana from taxation to production when elected?
“What has happened to their campaign rhetoric that Ghanaians were being over-taxed by the NDC/Mahama administration and their promise to develop Ghana through tax incentives?”
He continued: “It bears reminding ourselves that in the run-up to the 2016 general elections, these masters of political chicanery, President Akufo-Addo himself, ably assisted by his jocular “419” Vice, Dr. Bawumia, told Ghanaians in the Akan language that: “Yete Sika nso ekom de y3”, to wit, Ghanaians were sitting on money, yet we were starving.
“Now, the question we ought to be asking is, where is the money they claimed we were sitting on?” he asked.
He asked further whether the “four more to do more” slogan the NPP adpoted in 2020 was to tax the people more.
“You would further recall that in the run-up to the 2020 general elections, Dr. Bawumia and President Akufo-Addo asked the Ghanaian electorate to give them four (4) more years to do more for them?
“Is the imposition of draconian taxes on Ghanaians which has led to persistent increases in fuel prices what they meant by “4 more to do more”?” he asked.
Prices of petroleum products at various pumps increased in the second pricing window of October this year, as the Institute for Energy Security (IES) had projected.
The move is due to a 6.89 percent increase in the price of the International Benchmark- Brent crude, a 6.54 percent increase in the price of Gasoline, a 3.49 percent increase in Gasoil price, and a 0.49 percent depreciation of the local currency against the US Dollar.
A statement issued by the Institute’s Research Analyst, Fritz Moses explained, “The Institute for Energy Security (IES) projects for fuel price to increase by no more than GHp20.00 addition on the current price at the various pumps.”