Pro-government group, Inside Ghana, is demanding that the Judgment Debt Commission invites former President John Kufuor and former Attorney General Nana Akufo-Addo, to tell Ghanaians about their roles in the sale of a drill ship in 2001.
The Discoverer 511 was sold for US$24Million to defray a US$19.5Million judgment debt awarded against the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), in favour of French Bank Societe Generale, by an English Court.
US$900,000 of the amount was deposited into an escrow account to cater for GNPC’s creditors and suppliers while US$100,000 was used to pay legal services covering the transaction.
However, the remaining US$3.5Million, which was deposited into an account of the Government of Ghana at the Ghana International Bank in London, on the orders of former acting High Commissioner, Chris Kpodo, still cannot be traced.
Already former Energy Minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah and his Deputy, K.T. Hammond as well as former GNPC CEOs Tsatsu Tsikata and Dr. Quaah have appeared before the Commission over the matter.
Inside Ghana, however says former President Kufuor and former AG Akufo-Addo, under whose tenure the vessel was sold, must also necessarily, be hauled before the Commission to testify in the “fictitious sale” of the Ship. “Our call stems from the testimonies given by the principal actors, Kan-Dapaah and K.T Hammond who seem to be hiding behind these two persons to withhold further information on the dubious sale which we believe would expose the coup mentality and the create, loot and share administration of ex-President Kufuor”, Inside Ghana said in a statement.
It said the controversy surrounding the missing US$3.5Million balance payment has become “murkier after the melodramatic testimony of K.T Hammond and the startling revelations by Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata”.
According to the group, “whereas K.T. Hammond and his former boss, Kan Dapaah seek refuge from the shadows of ex-President Kufuor and the twice defeated Presidential standard-bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo, Mr. Tsiaka’s testimony indicts and implicates the two as serving the interest of Societe Generale against that of Ghana. A situation Inside Ghana finds untenable”.
