The Minority Leader in Parliament, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has criticized the New Patriotic Party administration for attempting to shift blame onto the Minority Caucus in Parliament regarding the government’s failure to operationalise the Komenda Sugar Factory.
The Member of Parliament for Ajumako Enyan Essiam Constituency in the Central Region in a scathing rebuttal to recent statements made by the Minister for Works and Housing, Honorable Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, refuted the claims and described it as a “palpable falsehood”.
“I have come across a publication attributed to the Minister for Works and Housing, Hon. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, in which he sought to blame the Minority in Parliament for the failure of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia NPP government to operationalise the Komenda Sugar Factory.
“On the contrary, such blame must be laid squarely at the door-step of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia NPP administration, which inherited a revamped Komenda Sugar Factory when power was handed over to them in 2017”.
Dr Cassiel Ato Forson
Dr Ato Forson began his argument by asserting that there is currently no request for tax waivers pertaining to the Komenda Sugar Factory before Parliament as suggested by the Works and Housing Minister and Member of Parliament for Ofoase Ayiribi.
He highlighted that the pending tax waivers, totalling over GHS5.5 billion before Parliament do not include any such request as communicated earlier by Honorable Kojo Oppong Nkrumah.
Non-Operationalization of the Komenda Sugar Factory
Emphasising the current government’s culpability over the non-operationalization of the Komenda Sugar Factory, Dr Forson strongly criticised President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s failure to fulfil the promises made regarding the factory’s operation.
He recounted how President Akufo-Addo, during a tour of the facility in 2021, pledged to open the factory by March 2022, after his administration abandoned the project during his first term but such a promise remained unfulfilled.
Similarly, the former Deputy Minister of Finance under the erstwhile Mahama’s administration recounted how the then Trade and Industry Minister, Honorable Alan Kyerematen, offered the government’s assurance and its efforts to make the factory operational, yet those assurances could also not materialize.
Dr Ato Forson thus chastised the ruling New Patriotic Party administration, stating that having failed to keep its promises to the chiefs and people of Komenda to operationalise the factory after eight years in office, it is untenable for the Minister of Works and Housing, Honorable Kojo Oppong Nkrumah to blame the Minority Caucus in Parliament.
Moreover, the Minority Leader in Parliament, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson touted the National Democratic Congress administration under former President John Dramani Mahama’s leadership commitment to revamp the factory while in office.
He recounted that Mahama’s administration received substantial financial backing from the Indian Export-Import (EXIM) Bank to fully operationalize the factory.
Dr Ato Forson highlighted that the significant investment of $35 million into the factory’s renovation, along with an additional $24 million to support sugar cane out-growers made the revamped facility boast a capacity to process 1250 metric tonnes of sugar cane daily.
He strongly argued that the factory at the time of its inauguration by former President John Dramani Mahama had a promising potential for job creation as well as reducing Ghana’s sugar importation.
Expressing disappointment in the government’s failure to honour commitments made to the people of Komenda and the Central Region, Dr Forson labelled the blame-shifting by the Member of Parliament for Ofoase Ayiribi as “ridiculous”.
He further called upon Ghanaians particularly the people of Komenda to consider the government’s track record when casting their votes in the upcoming December 7 polls.
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