The Minority Chief Whip, Governs Agbodza, has criticised the Electricity Company of Ghana's (ECG) decision to disconnect the Parliament from the power supply, calling it inappropriate.

Speaking on JoyNews, he said that the sudden loss of power could have caused distress to the people inside the Parliament building as some of them were trapped in elevators.

“There are people in this country who are claustrophobic. There are people when they are in the room and you tell them the door is locked, it can create a psychological problem.”

Mr Agbodza pointed out that the ECG's Managing Director, who authorised the disconnection of power to the Parliament building, claimed that it was simply doing its job as he cut power to Parliament on Thursday, February 29, over its indebtedness to the ECG.

“Mr Speaker, I don’t think that is right. Parliament does not generate IGF,” he said.

Mr Agbodza stated that the Parliament building does not have any extra funds available to pay off its debt to the ECG.

He explained that if the Parliament is unable to pay its electricity bills, it is likely because the government has not provided the necessary funding.

“If we had our own money, we would have paid the bill so we take it very seriously for the ECG boss to be boasting that I turned the light off because I am also just doing my job. I mean, Mr Speaker, I think this is an affront to parliament and I wish that maybe you will direct that he retracts that.”

“Yesterday Honourable Armah Boah said it. This morning, I am the fourth colleague saying this. Mr. Speaker, it is a serious matter. But the issue about the outages, something must be done about it,” he said.

Background

The Managing Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Samuel Dubik Mahama has defended his decision to disconnect electricity supply to the Parliament.

According to him, while parliament was in session, the ECG was also working as they recently embarked on a revenue mobilisation drive.

In an interview on Accra-based Starr FM, the Managing Director stated that just as parliament was fulfilling its duties, the ECG was also performing its duties.

“You said Parliament was working, what was ECG doing? he quizzed.