A former Deputy Energy Minister, KT Hammond has blamed the continued shortage of fuel on the shut down of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR). He said the refinery supplies more than 60 per cent petrol to the public and its shut down has had a devastating effect on the country. Fuel stations in some parts of the country have been hit by fuel shortages in the past few days, coming with its attendant queues. Government sources have attributed the shortage to delays in the arrival of oil vessels expected to supply petrol to the country and promised to end the shortage by close of day, Monday, 28th September, 2009. Joy News checks at a few of the stations in Accra on Tuesday, revealed improvements but the situation is yet to normalize. Speaking to Joy FM’s Dzifa Bampoe on Tuesday, the former Deputy Energy Minister under the Kufuor administration said the shortage is a clear case of the “chicken coming home to roost.” The vociferous critic of the NDC accused the government of peddling falsehood and hiding the real reasons for the shortage. TOR has been shut down for nearly eight months, a decision government explains is to manage a colossal debt inherited from the previous government. But that, Hammond insists, is a flimsy excuse. He argued that the Kufuor administration was confronted with a similar challenge of indebtedness but was able to resolve it within a few months in government. Even though he conceded that government had succeeded in reviewing the contract with Nigeria to provide 45 barrels of crude oil instead of 30 initially agreed with the Kufuor administration, he said the barrels have been held up because TOR has been shut down. He has called on government to be forthright with the people of Ghana. Story by Nathan Gadugah/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana