A member of Parliament for Effutu Alexander Afenyo Markins says President John Mahama must crack the whip on officials of the Ashanti Region's Electricity Company of Ghana whose negligence led to the fire incident that burnt over 25,000 meters.

The MP does not understand why meters worth over $2 million would be kept at an abandoned warehouse.

The meters were purchased as part of a planned replacement exercise, which was expected to begin this month but that exercise would have to be stalled a while longer because most of the meters had been reduced to ashes.

Fire swept through the warehouse only hours after the meters were offloaded into it.

The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained even though some suspect arson. 

Luv FM's Erastus Asare Donkor who broke the story, reported that the warehouse was an abandoned one, a claim Ashanti Region ECG PRO Erastus Baidoo has denied.

Donkor said the warehouse used to be an old printing press in the 80s.

He, like many other critics, wondered why the ECG decided to use an old abandoned warehouse when it has a number of storehouses to keep the meters.

Asare Donkor said while some of the batteries got burnt completely, others were partially burnt.

He found it puzzling that several days after the incident the ECG officials have not made any attempt to salvage some of the meters which did not burn.

Justifying why the ECG kept the meters at the warehouse, Erastus Baidoo told Joy News that warehouse was only to store the meters on temporary basis.

Incidentally the meters got burnt the same day they were offloaded into the warehouse. 

Erastus Baidoo said investigations have begun to ascertain the cause of the fire.

But Alexander Afenyo Markins said it is time for the president to show leadership in this scandal.

He said for a country that is paying a yearly interest of $9.5 billion on loans, it cannot allow such reckless negligence to go unpunished.

He added for a country reeling under power crisis, the ECG cannot be allowed to behave in such manner.
He charged on the president to act and act decisively on the matter.