Mr. Andrew Awuni, Presidential Press Secretary, has told Joy FM that President Kufuor has no interest in peddling any allegations against the former President J.J. Rawlings and his wife.

Mr. Awuni was speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on allegations that President Kufuor could be behind publications of a Norwegian court proceedings in which former President Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings were alleged to have received bribes from cement producer GHACEM, through its mother company.

He said sometimes he thinks President Kufuor has been unduly harassed by ex-President Rawlings and his wife and urged Ghanaians to take note of the situation and do something about it.

“We all need to be civil in our language and to be decent in what we do here,” Awuni urged all.

He said SCANCEM, the mother company of GHACEM deemed that some of its officials had shortchanged the company and was therefore pursuing the matter in far away Norway and wondered why the President’s name would come up on this.

Mr. Awuni however observed that certain happenings around the issue were somewhat curious.

“What is quite curious is that the period that SCANCEM is talking about now …in the 90s is also the period within which Ghana decided to offload its majority shares in GHACEM. Ghana used to have majority shares in GHACEM, around this same period to we decided to sell off, to hand over to SCANCEM and making SCANCEM the majority shareholder. Indeed this government has been worried about the treatment GHACEM has been giving to Ghanaians…”

He touched on the controversial sale of Takoradi International Company shares to the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) by CMS Generation, and said the government was still in talks with the new majority shareholders over state interests.

“That is still going on. There is a lot more work to be completed, Government is interested in taking back some of its shares, … or at least get some money for it. Negotiations are continuing and I’m sure when they are completed … they would be made available to all of us.”

Andrew Awuni was speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, and said the government shared in the plight of industry and the country at large over the energy crisis and was therefore taking pragmatic measures to address it permanently.

The government protested vehemently when CMS Generation, the previous 90 percent majority shareholder transferred its interest to TAQA, forcing government into an awkward position with claims it would never recognise the transaction because per contractual arrangements, the Government of Ghana ought to have been given the first option to purchase the shares or at least its consent sought prior to the new arrangement.

According to Awuni, the energy crisis remained the President’s biggest worry as well as that of the government, and assured that the government was keen in getting the energy crisis over with and permanently. He would however not dabble in timelines.

“I can tell you one thing, that the energy crisis, like we dealt with the petrol situation in Ghana here, it will and it will end beautifully and when it ends, when it ends, we will not revisit this subject again, in fact Akosombo – you know these days when we go to parliament to talk about the budget nobody realises that the budget is being read, when petrol issues come up nobody remembers, that is what is going to happen to energy. We will deal with it comprehensively and effectively and we will make sure that it never comes again.”