The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah has made it clear that he will not apologise to Mark Wiafe Asomani, a manager of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in the region.
This is in response to the Workers’ Union of ECG’s request that the Ashanti Regional Minister apologise for allegedly causing the arrest of one of their General Managers, Mr. Asomani, following a power outage at Kumasi Technical University.
Meanwhile, at a press conference in Kumasi on Thursday, April 25, Mr. Osei Mensah defended his decision to call for the arrest of the ECG manager, stressing that he was doing his only his work.
“Do I have to apologise for doing my security work? What I want to tell you is that I asked the police to invite Ing Mark Asomani Wiafe on security grounds because of the happenings in the electricity sector in the region and the fact that a task force can always come from outside to disconnect without the proper information.
“What is ironic is that they tell me that they are not under me and for that matter, I cannot tell them what to do but they want to tell me how to execute my security responsibilities as enshrined in the Securities and Intelligence Act of 2020, Act 10(30).”
The Minister also denied rumours that some ECG managers are Regional Security Council (RESEC) members.
He also criticized the power distributors for failing to maintain an uninterrupted power supply at the residences of the president and vice president when in the Ashanti Region.
“It is a palpable falsehood. They are not members of the Regional Security Council. Regional Security Council invited them to come and brief us on the adequacy or otherwise of security measures put in place at the various installations of the ECG.
“I had informed ECG that where the President and the Vice President lodged anytime they are in Kumasi is declared a security zone. Unfortunately, ECG had never observed this and keeps on flouting this,” he added.
