The Chairman of Parliament’s Committee on Mines and Energy, Samuel Atta Akyea, says the Minority seem to be jumping the gun concerning the case of the relocation of the Ameri plant to Kumasi and other related matters.

According to him, the Energy Minister, Matthew Opoku Prempeh, is yet to come before Parliament to submit documents that will detail the deal and decide who the plant will be left in charge of.

The Minority are among other things demanding that the Ameri plant be handed over to the Volta River Authority (VRA) to man.

John Abdulai Jinapor, who is the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Energy Committee, insists the VRA is well equipped and has the capacity to man the plant and its operations just as efficiently as it had done several other plants in the country.

However, reacting to Mr. Jinapor’s statement, Mr. Atta Akyea noted that even though the Ranking member has it in his rights to proffer alternative solutions, the time was not right just yet.

He called on the Minority to exercise patience and wait for the Minister to come before the house to address the matter officially before starting arguments on the issue.

“As to the quality decision regarding who should run what and at what cost, it is the government of the day that will take that decision but mindful of the fact that it has to filter through Parliament for us to look at all the parameters and be sure.

“So I cannot take that decision as a Member of Parliament but it is for the Minister of Energy who should appear and justify all the issues and more so address the concerns of Ranking.

“Because I respect the position of Ranking on some of these matters, but it seems to me that without hearing the other side he’s jumped to the media and that is not what I prefer in trying to have a comprehensive and holistic understanding of a topical issue.

“Half the time we don’t listen well, we need to also listen to the view of the one who is running the government – the representative of the one who is running the government – and we’ll be able to say no Minister the alternative options are better or the benefits of the alternative options far outweigh the position you’ve taken and if you don’t get your cooperation on what is good for Ghana you’ll find it extremely tough trying to get your say-so through parliament,” he said.

He noted that he is yet to sight any of the documents referring to the deal, and thus has called on the Ranking Member to exercise patience till such a time when the documents are provided and the committee is able to probe and interrogate for more understanding.

“I think that’s the way to go. But right now… I sitting here as the Chairman of the Committee of Mines and Energy, I’ve not even sighted any document at all. So if something is not crystallised why would you want to build arguments on it? It’s difficult to do that.

“You need to see the document, and then we subject the document to proper scrutiny. If it is going to shortchange Ghana it will be so obvious that it won’t pass,” he said.