AFAG Okays Decision Of Us Embassy

…To refuse visa to top government officials

MR. KOJO Quainoo, a deputy director of Operations of the Alliance for Accountable

Governance, (AFAG) says the decision taken by the US Embassy in respect of refusal

of visas to two top Ghanaian Government Officials was in the right direction.

According to Quainoo the two government officials deserved the treatment meted

out to them in the face of the decision of the Government of which they were

part, to allegedly frustrate America Investors.

“If this Government has decided to frustrate America Investors in this country, and

the key people who are behind these frustrations are being refused entry to the USA,

then it is right” the AFAG Operations director told TRUTH in an electronic

mail.

He explained his position in the roles and purposes of establishing

diplomatic missions: the role to protect in the receiving State the interests of

the sending State and of its nationals, within the limits permitted by international

law; negotiating with the Government of the receiving State as directed by the

sending State; ascertaining by lawful means conditions and developments in the

receiving State, and reporting thereon to the Government of the sending State;

promoting friendly relations between the sending State and the receiving State, and

developing their economic, cultural and scientific relations.

Following the seeming breach of the roles establishing such diplomatic

missions, Quainoo said the conduct of the NDC Government is a ‘’targeted malice and

a malicious mischief’’ purported at crippling US Investors in this country” and

urged the US Government not to subscribe to the whims and caprices of the NDC

government, which is mostly anti-US.

Referring to the claims by the two officials that their ordeal was a

function of the Kosmos Energy and Exxonmobil deal, the AFAG director indicated that

even if that was the case, it was because the NDC Government had not treated

Kosmos and Exxonmobil fairly.

According to Quainoo, the government had actually frustrated them and explained that

in the agreement with Ghana Government, GNPC and Kosmos Energy, it is stated that if

Kosmos wants to sell its stake, it needs the consent of the Government, and the

Government should not deny or delay the process unnecessarily.

The agreement according to Quainoo further stated that the Company willing to

buy should be technically and financially sound for which reason Kosmos engaged no

other company than the richest oil company in the world, Exxonmobil because they

are technically and financially better than any other oil company in the world.

Quainoo mentioned that at a meeting of Exxonmobil and Kosmos Energy Officials and

some officials from GNPC and the Energy ministry the investors were treated with

contempt and that there is every indication that the Ghanaian officials, who

seemed naïve, were under instructions from above and of their bosses.

Deputy Director Quainoo also cited an instance where another oil company from

Norway, ACER AKA, were allegedly maltreated by the Energy minister, Dr. Oteng Adjei

and subsequently had their contract abrogated for spurious reasons.

Quainoo stated that the US embassy is here to protect the interests of its

nationals, within the limits permitted by international law. “The US Investors are

clean, but the fact of the matter is, some of the NDC Government Officials are

anti-US and that the US Government does not need the brain of a rocket scientist to

fathom this,” he said.

He said if there is anybody who has committed a crime or done something repugnant

and callous, then it is the Ghana Government because “the silence of the President

is a tacit endorsement of the way they (NDC) are treating US Investors.