By Addo Oforiwa Abigail and Demah Bertha (GIJ Interns)
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo yesterday put paid to grumblings, when he admitted that he made a mistake with his comment earlier regarding the construction of a harbour in Cape Coast, in the Central Region.
“Let me confess, I made a mistake, even with the mistake, we have to rethink. We can’t have a harbor at Takoradi and Elimia and have another one at Cape Coast but I have to apologize to the people of Cape Coast. Presidents are human after all, we are not supermen. We make mistakes,” the President said.
Recall that in a recent interview on Cape Coast-based Eagle FM, Nana Akufo Addo denied that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) made any commitment to construct a Harbour in the region, insisting that “the commitment was never to a harbour; it was to a landing site.”
Justifying his statement, President Akufo-Addo referenced Page 88 of the NPP’s 2020 Manifesto, dubbed Leadership of Service: Protecting our Progress, Transforming Ghana for All.
“I never said I was going to build a harbour in Cape Coast. I said I was going to build a landing site like what I’ve done in these six other places in the Central Region. Cape Coast will also have its landing site, and the construction of that will start next year,” the President stated.
Speaking in an interview with Kwame Sefa Kai on the Kokrokoo Morning show on varied issues, President Akufo Addo also explained why the Komenda Sugar Factory, which former President Mahama is reported to have stated that the he was not a fool to have built the factory without plans for raw material, has not been functional.
He disclosed that “In May 30, 2016, immediately after its commissioning the factory was shut down because of lack of access to raw materials and soon after, a transaction adviser who was appointed by the NDC government, Price Water House came to try and assist the government to sell 70% of the shares in the factory and all these was happening in Mahama time not my time.”
According to the President “What we are trying to do now is to reconfigure the investment and we now have access to raw material supply to the factory. God-willing by February next year we will have the Komenda Sugar factory working. This is a target and we have made arrangements now to supply raw materials, and it is going to be sustainable since it’s going to work.”
Asked about projects, which the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) accuses government of abandoning, Nana Addo, with statistic retorted that “some of the things when you hear they are disgusting, but the reality or fact will tell you a completely different story. …You talk about the Ho main road in the center a dualisation process of Ho, I came to meet physical progress of 8% today we are taking 50% in the development. The Eastern Corridor road block 5 and 6, when we came in, the physical progress there was 55%, today is 78%. In Nkwanta Dambai, road reconstruction was 6.85%, the physical progress today is 61 %…”
