The Minority in Parliament has dismissed claims linking the recent fire at the Akosombo substation to the ongoing power outages affecting parts of the country, arguing that the electricity crisis began long before the incident.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, April 28, Collins Adomako-Mensah, the Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament’s Energy Committee, said the current power challenges popularly known as “dumsor” had started well before the 23 April fire.
He noted that the power crisis, which millions of Ghanaians have reportedly faced since 25 January, cannot be blamed on an isolated fault or accident at Akosombo.
“Ghana’s power crisis, the dumsor that millions of Ghanaians have been enduring since January 25, was not caused by any accident at Akosombo. It was caused by this government,” he said.
Mr. Adomako-Mensah went on to describe the 23 April incident as “the latest and most dramatic symptom” of what he called a decaying power sector.
“The events of 23rd April are the latest and most dramatic symptom of a power sector left to decay under the NDC’s incompetent stewardship,” he stated.
He warned against using the Akosombo incident as an explanation for the broader crisis, saying such a move would misrepresent the real cause of the problem.
“The Mahama government must not be permitted to use this incident as a convenient alibi for a crisis that predates it by more than a year, and the Minority will not allow that cynical rewriting of history to pass unchallenged,” he added.
The Minority also presented a timeline of power disruptions, stressing that Ghanaians had been suffering persistent outages long before the substation fire.
“Long before the event of 23rd April 2026, Ghanaians across every region of this country had been enduring persistent, unannounced, and devastating power outages,” he said.
He further pointed out that the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) had issued several emergency and maintenance notices in April, along with public apologies from its leadership regarding unstable power supply and damage to appliances.
According to him, the situation had already severely affected households, businesses, and essential services.
“Communities were living in darkness, not for hours, but for days. Industries were hemorrhaging losses. Cold stores were warm. Hospitals were straining on generators,” he said, adding, “that was the reality of Ghana’s power sector before any incident at Akosombo.”
He maintained that these difficulties existed prior to the Akosombo fire and should not be ignored when assessing the overall energy situation.
