Asiedu Nketia reveals circumstances surrounding his block factory and the Bui Hydroelectric Power dam

Johnson Asiedu Nketia, the NDC General Secretary, has delved into the old tales of him supplying blocks that were being used to construct the Bui Dam project.

He described the allegations as “much ado about nothing”.

Speaking to Citi TV on Tuesday evening, the NDC General Secretary who used to be a board member of the Bui Power Authority said that the story was fabricated by the NPP because he tried summoning former President Kufuor before the Board of Bui Power Authority to answer certain questions.

“It was not true. It was much ado about nothing. Go and look at the Dam, the Dam is not constructed with blocks,” Asiedu Nketia said with amusement.

Detailing why his block factory became associated with the Bui Power Authority, the NDC chief scribe said:

“…The most interesting board membership this country has had was for President Kufuor to become a board member while he was a sitting President.

“He was the first Bui Board chairman and he was reporting to the Energy minister who was also then reporting to him as President. It happened in this country. From 2000 to 2004, I was in Parliament then. When the Bui master agreement was being signed, how could board members be appointed even when the project agreement was being signed.

“We approved it in Parliament with [the then] NPP majority that President Kufuor should be the first board member for Bui. It was not a mistake and Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu was a whip who spoke and supported it. President Kufuor became the first board chairman of Bui.

“When I became a chairman subsequently, I was trying to get him as a former chairman to come and clarify certain things and their way of fighting back was me selling blocks to the Bui project. They were saying that I made blocks for the project to be constructed, go and look at the project if it was done [with] blocks.”

When asked if he has a block factory, General Mosquito responded in the affirmative.

“Yes, I have a block factory. Some contractors who were given some of the contracts for some of the resettlement villages came to buy blocks from my factory, that’s all. This has nothing to do with the Board,” he said.

When prompted by the interviewer that it is a conflict of interest, Asiedu Nketia rebutted, “no no no maybe you don’t understand the conflict of interest very well”.

He explained, “We have Bui Power Authority which is supervising the construction of a turn-key project. This means the contractor buys his material and everything; all that the Bui Board will do is to verify the quality of the material. Now, this contractor sublets part of his job, that’s resettlement villages to local contractors so these local contractors were looking for material to buy…my facility is in Banda [and] two of the contractors who won jobs under the subcontract were my clients. So they just came, bought the blocks and conveyed it to their site to work. So, this means that I was guilty of conflict of interest?”

Johnson Asiedu Nketia further stated that the NPP was hyping his block factory to rubbish his summons to former President Kufuor.

He added that the issues surrounding Kufuor’s chairmanship still persists.