The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has issued a 7-day ultimatum to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akfuo-Addo to retrieve for the state the billions of cedis the government has ‘illegally paid under the shady “Agyapa” deal.’
The payments, which the NDC claimed have been made to Databank, owned by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta and African Legal Associates, owned by Gabby Otchere Darko, both cousins to the President, must be returned to the national chest.
The party warned it will, with other like-minded progressive forces, embark on series of protests and legal actions to ensure every pesewa paid to these companies is refunded back to the State for nation-building.
NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, who issued the ultimatum at the 16th edition of the party’s weekly briefing expressed shock at the refusal of the President to crack the Whip on the Finance Minister who supervised what he said is daylight heist, and his Deputy, Charles Adu Boahen, ‘who fraudulently signed the Mandate Agreement when he had no locus to do so under Ghana’s laws.’
He said, “It is sad but unsurprising that these government officials who are responsible for the shady Agyapa deal, which has occasioned a huge financial loss to the nation, are still at post.”
“In any serious country, Ken Ofori Atta and Charles Adu Boahen would have been suspended pending criminal investigations or under criminal prosecution by now.”
“Sadly, in our case, President Akufo Addo has decided to shield these corrupt officials from punishment, as he usually does.”
According to him, the Corruption Risk Assessment conducted on the “Agyapa” scandal by the Special Prosecutor confirms the NDC’s long-held position that the whole transaction is daylight robbery.
He said, “As found by the OSP, the transaction processes and Mandate Agreement violated the Public Procurement Act, the Financial Management Act, and the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, hence null and void.”
“As a matter of fact, the processes leading to the transaction agreements and Mandate Agreement were shady, opaque and fraught with procurement rigging, stonewalling, fraud, statutory and constitutional breaches.”
He stated that the valuation of gold royalties and transaction agreements that President Akufo Addo and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) approved was a ripoff and an affront to the sovereignty of the nation.
He stressed that the Mandate Agreement under which billions of cedis were paid to Databank and African Legal Associates is illegal, and has been confirmed by the OSP, and therefore null and void.
“What Ghanaians must be interested in at this stage, are the steps the Akufo Addo government is taking to retrieve the illegal payments that they have made to these companies.”
“This is because you cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand. If the agreements under which these companies were made are null and void, then so are the payments made thereto, hence must be refunded to the State,” he said.
Mr. Asiedu-Nketia warned that the Agyapa deal, and all other similar corrupt acts of the Akufo Addo government, will not go unpunished.
The new government of Mr. John Dramani Mahama and the NDC, he said, will investigate the ‘Agyapa robbery’ and punish all the culprits and masterminds behind it through an Operation Sting crusade, warning that crime has no expiry date but just a matter of time.
