The Minority in Parliament has threatened to go on demonstration to force the government to clear all the locked-up crucial medical commodities at the Tema Port.
This followed President Akuffo Addo led government's refusal to pay some 3.6 million US dollars in taxes, levies, and port charges on life-saving medical supplies valued at several hundred million dollars given to the country for free by the Global Fund for Community Foundation.
Containers of these important medical goods have been sitting at Tema Port for more than a year, while the Ghanaian health system has been alerted to a scarcity of life-saving medications such as TB and HIV treatments.
Instead of clearing all the containers, the government has chosen the approach of clearing only a few of them and then releasing a statement to the public claiming that they have completed the task of receiving the supplies; this has been going on for months.
According to the Minority Group, they will not relent in their efforts to push-clear those locked-up commodities and drugs from the port.
They expressed their displeasure and intention at a press conference in Parliament led by Mr. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh on Thursday and urged the minister of health, Dr. Okoe-Boe to clear the items as soon as possible.
“We are a group of reasonable people, and so we have heard the plea by the Minister of Health that we should give him two weeks.”
“That notwithstanding, we have heard him, but we are sending a clear warning that within his own two weeks, all the containers of drugs should be cleared from the port, and not some as they have been doing,” he stated.
Mr Akandoh, who is also the MP for Juaboso, noted that despite persistent pressure on the government to clear all the containers, it was dragging its feet.
He was of the view that the government's "insensitivity and irresponsibility" had become legendary.
"I think that when it comes to matters of health, the government must move with alacrity because it borders on the lives of the people," claimed the politician.
