NO FEARS ...Crude oil will come, Prez assures (LEAD STORY, OCT 23)

PRESIDENT John Evans Atta Mills yesterday visited the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) and assured workers that the government would definitely provide the refinery with the much needed crude oil to facilitate its operations.
“ I am here for one reason: I want crude oil. I want to assure you that you are going to get crude oil to run the refinery,” he said.
Interacting with the workers on the factory premises in Tema, President Mills said the government attached great importance to the activities of the refinery, which he described as one of the pivots of the country’s economic development.
He said the government was sensitive to the plight of the electorate who gave it the mandate to manage the country’s affairs and would not, by any stretch of the imagination, undertake actions which would inflict hardships on them.
According to him, the regular supply of petroleum products to the market was important to industry and manufacturing, for which reason the government would strive at all times to ensure that those products were on the market.
President Mills explained that the government had learnt very hard lessons from the operations of the petroleum sector, stressing that there were so many intrigues in the sector which it had discovered and was dealing with them to ensure that petroleum products were available to Ghanaians throughout the year.
He said the government sympathised with the broad masses of the people whenever there were shortages of fuel on the market and cautioned that individuals and groups of persons whose main intention was to sabotage the efforts of the government in the sector should reconsider their ways and change for the better.
“The government is learning its lessons the hard way, for which reason I want to assure those engaged in all sorts of malpractice in the petroleum sector that they will not get away with their acts which are harming the economy,” he said.
President Mills appealed to the workers to exercise restraint while the government took all the needed measures to address challenges facing the refinery.
The workers enjoined President Mills to take pains to investigate activities at the Ministry of Energy which they believed were the cause of the recent shortage of petroleum products in the country.
They also enjoined him to be watchful of the activities of some of his ministers whom they alleged were sabotaging his efforts to ensure the transformation of the country’s social and economic structures.