Agyapa: CSOs against deal resist calls for Ofori-Atta’s dismissal

Leadership of some 15 Civil Society Organisation Group calling for the suspension of the controversial Agyapa deal have shot down calls for the sacking of Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta over the findings of the Special Prosecutor in his corruption risk assessment on the transaction.

According to Dr Steve Manteaw, a member of the Alliance of Civil Society groups working in extractives, there is rather the need for the Special Prosecutor who in his risk assessment established that, there was reasonable suspicion of bid-rigging and corruption activity in the selection process of the deal, to prosecute culpable persons in the deal.

On the issue of calls for the sacking of the Finance Minister, Dr Manteaw at a press briefing in Accra, said he must be allowed to hold his position until he is proven guilty by a law court.

Demand for the sacking of the Finance Minister was raised by the opposition National Democratic Congress at a press conference addressed by the party’s General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia on Tuesday, November 12, 2020.

According to the NDC, there is the need for the president to dismiss government officials who have been implicated by the Special Prosecutors report. These persons, the General Secretary said includes the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta and his Deputy, Charles Adu Boahen.

The party has also called on the president to ensure the retrieval of monies paid to some persons associated with the deal, failing which the NDC shall embark on a series of protests and legal actions to ensure the monies are refunded.

“The NDC, hereby, demands that President Akufo-Addo retrieves the state’s the billions of cedis his government has illegally paid under the shady ‘Agyapa’ deal to Databank, which is owned by his cousin and Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta; African Legal Associates, which is owned by another cousin of his, Gabby Otchere Darko; and their foreign compradors, within the next 7 days, failing which the NDC and other like-minded progressive forces, shall embark on series of protest and legal actions to ensure that every pesewa paid to these companies are refunded back to the State for nation-building.”