Ex- Prez Kufuor Clears The Air

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has categorically indicated that Dr. Kwame Bawuah-Edusei, one of the two partners of the EO Group which has a stake in the Jubilee Oil Field, WAS NOT the Chairman, and HAD NEVER BEEN the Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in North America or elsewhere.

This is contained in a letter dated November 3, 2010, and signed by Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani, former Chief of Staff in the erstwhile NPP administration, following a statement the former Head of State made in a recent interview with the UK-based Financial Times (FT).

In the course of the interview, former President Kufuor was reported to have stated that Dr. Bawuah-Edusei was the Chairman of the North American branch of the New Patriotic Party at the time the EO Group attracted Kosmos Energy into oil exploration in Ghana.

Retracting the above statement, Kufuor maintained in the letter – addressed to the editor of the FT, and which The New Weekend Crusading Guide chanced upon – “THE TRUE POSITION IS THAT DR. EDUSEI WAS NOT THE CHAIRMAN AND HAS NEVER BEEN A CHAIRMAN OF THE PARTY IN NORTH AMERICA OR ANYWHERE ELSE.”

According to official file of the North American branch of the NPP, Bawuah-Edusei had never been the Chairman of that branch.

Available records to this paper show that the party’s chairmen of the North American branch since it was formed in 1922 are:

Mr. Boakye Agyarko; 1992 – 1998

Mr. Charles Amoamah; 1998 – 2001

Mr. Philip Tawiah; 2001 – 2003

Mr. Mohammed Idris; 2003 – 2007

Mr. Kofi Boateng; 2007 – 2009

Mr. Kwaku Agyei Yeboah; 2009 – to date

Readers will recall that Dr. Bawuah-Edusei and his partner, Mr. Owusu, jointly formed the EO Group in August 2002, and initially brought Ennex International PIC – an Irish company – to Ghana in November 2002 for exploration purposes. The EO Group and Ennex agreed to form a joint venture to acquire the West Cape Three Points (WCTP) block.

The EO Group was slated to have 15% interest while Ennex was to take 85%, and would bear all of the costs of the EO Group.

By April 2003 the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Ennex, EO Group and the Ministry of Energy had completed negotiations for a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), setting out all the key commercial terms and conditions of a Petroleum Agreement. The Ministry and the GNPC signed the MoU, subject to Ennex demonstrating financial capability and committing to the minimum work programme.

However, by late 2003, it had become apparent that Ennex was not willing to bear the financial commitment of the minimum work obligation, and so a substitute had to be sought.

With the collapse of the Ennex connection, Dr. Edusei and Mr. Owusu went around in search of oil companies to come to Ghana, but since the companies the EO Group contacted did not show any interest in the oil exploration, the Group turned to Dallas in the US where the Kosmos connection materialized.