The Minister for Information, Mustapha Hamid, has downplayed suggestions that President Akufo-Addo erred in law by ordering a halt to the ongoing constructions of fuel stations across the country.
According to him, the order is in the best interest of Ghanaians.
In the wake of the Atomic Junction gas explosion, the construction of petrol/diesel and LPG filling points, is to cease immediately until further notice, the government has stated.
This directive formed part of nine safety measures outlined by the Presidency after a cabinet meeting on Thursday.
A statement from the government noted that, President Nana Akufo-Addo has ordered the “immediate cessation, until further notice, of all construction of facilities intended for use as gas or petroleum retail stations.”
The directive follows the massive explosion at an LPG filling station at Atomic Junction that has so far claimed at least seven lives and injured over 100 persons.
But a former Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Mahama Ayariga, said the government may be infringing on the rights of some fuel distributors over the directive.
In an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show on Friday, he said he embarked on a similar move while a sector minister in the previous government, but found out that he could not be successful because the action did not have a legal basis.
“I did similar things and in all fairness, very often I was challenged by people based on law and they were able to show that clearly, in many of the instances, I was wrong,” he noted.
He there advised the government to “analyze every one of them [fuel stations] to see the legal basis for such decisions, and such directives” before any concrete action is taken in this regard.
But Mustapha Hamid on Eyewitness News said there was no complexity in the directive, and that government had the power to issue such a directive.
He noted that, the state had empowered agencies to carry-out such actions, adding that, the directive was only for a short period to allow for a proper audit of the sector.
“This is a country where institutions have been endowed with the power to ensure that people are building structures in accordance with law. So if the president says let us put a stop to the buildings and let us go and see whether the people who are putting it up are doing it according to specifications as enshrined in existing laws, I don’t see how that can be unconstitutional…When the audit is done, those that are cleared to continue can continue,” he said.
Source: citifmonline.com