Agyapa Deal: Your comments about Amidu harsh and avoidable – Baako to Assibey-Yeboah

Editor-In-Chief of the New Crusading Guide Newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Jnr has described the comments made by Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah, the Chairperson of the Finance Committee of Parliament in respect of the corruption risk assessment on the Agyapa Royalties Minerals agreement as harsh and avoidable.

According to him, the lawmaker could have been more diplomatic in his communication than the path he chose irrespective of the obvious, serious legal loopholes in the Special Prosecutor’s report.

“Harsh commentary and avoidable by the Chair of the Finance Committee. He could and should have been diplomatic in his articulation/communication. However, obvious, serious legal loopholes in the SP Report”, he wrote in a post sighted by MyNewsGh.com.

The veteran journalist is however of the view that some of the observations cannot and would not stand the test of critical judicial scrutiny and determination.

“Some of the observations cannot and would not stand the test of critical judicial scrutiny and determination! How I wish the SP proceeds to the level of prosecution for us and posterity to have the benefit of how to do things, going forward! Or?”, he quizzed.

The lawmaker for New Juaben South in reaction to Martin Amidu’s corruption risk assessment on the Agyapa Royalties Minerals agreement to the President was quoted to have said it was full of “conjectures, hypotheticals, hearsays."

"He’s put out these documents like a social commentator. I say Martin Amidu’s work is sloppy. You are criticizing the work of Parliament, you are doing a corruption risk assessment, I am chairman of the Finance Committee, you come for our report, you don’t even know how the meetings went and you sit somewhere and you are saying that you do not think that Parliament or the Finance Committee did a thorough job. He didn’t even consult me; he didn’t call me. He could have easily invited me to speak to me. This is the sloppiest job I’ve ever seen.” Dr. Assibey-Yeboah stated.

He added, “You are passing judgment on an arm of government and you don’t take the pains to speak to the Majority Leader, the chairman of the Finance Committee, the Speaker of Parliament, all those connected with this approval process and he thinks we should swallow hook-line and sinker what he puts out?”

The MP argued that though Amidu wrote to parliament for documents concerning the Agyapa Royalties agreement, it is not enough for him to have relied on the documents alone.

“This is a person who is telling us that Government Official 1 [in the Airbus Scandal] is John Mahama but he cannot invite him or question him because he is running for elections. Is this law?…Which law says that if someone is running for the presidency, he shouldn’t be questioned for wrongdoing?” Dr. Assibey-Yeboah quizzed.