'Kitchen Scandal’: What Paul-Adom Otchere said about Ablakwa, Gabby, Dame and 'Kitchen contract'

The Member of Parliament (MP) for North, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, slammed broadcaster Paul Adom-Otchere for criticising his publication of a 187 million Ghana cedi transaction he describes as the 'kitchen scandal.'

In the publication, Ablakwa alleged that the cousin of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, was seeking to enforce payment of the said sum even though the current government has varied the contract.

He also implicated the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Dame, in the said transaction.

Paul Adom Otchere, in an editorial on his Good Evening Ghana, on Tuesday, August 2, 2023, slammed the MP for the allegations he made.

According to him, the MP was crying foul, because Gabby and Dame had nothing in the said transaction.

He explained that Gabby was only contracted by the company whose contract was terminated by the government to help them get their judgment debt and Dame as the attorney general, is the one who looks into contractual agreements of the government.

Adom Otchere was particularly bemused by the theatrics surrounding the publication by Ablakwa.

“The ‘Kitchen Scandal’ drops at 5 am, a Member of Parliament, former minister, you can you do that... You know that this letter that you have received, you have received it in the privileged position as a Member of Parliament because somebody has given it to you.

“You should look at the letter and know that this is confidential, and you have the power to summon the attorney general. You have the power to summon the Minister of Finance. You have the power to summon the Ghana Revenue Authority, the governor of the central bank, you have the power to summon all of them, but you decide to do it like it's a new movie, the Kumasi movies... it looks like some Diablo movie,” he said.

He went on to say the MP failed to acknowledge that his party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), is the source of the scandal, if there is really one.

He reiterated that the attorney general and the cousin of the president had done nothing wrong.

“Let's get serious in this country… This one is a no, no, because there's no scandal anywhere anyway. And if you were to look at it, the people who have really created a scandal are his colleagues whose names we don't want to mention tonight, because they did their work for government and we assume that they did their work faithfully.

“But if we are talking about a scandal, if we are talking about governments coming to the place where there's a problem, it was created by them, and it has been resolved. But the one who is resolving the problem rather, you are calling him bad. It is Godfred Dame who is resolving the problem,” he said.



Background:

Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, lawyer and cousin of president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is the latest personality to come under the parliamentary oversight radar of North Tongu Member of Parliament, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.

The lawmaker, on August 1, 2023, posted a series of documents to back his latest publication dubbed kitchen scandal.

He accuses Akufo-Addo's inner circle especially Gabby of engaging in a deal that is likely to cost the country huge sums of money.

He disclosed that the scandal in question was valued at GH¢187,356,969.55.

"The Kitchen Scandal is a tale of betrayal, bravado, double standards, influence peddling, dishonesty, greed, collusion, arm-twisting, naked nepotism and blatant rape of the public purse.

"The Kitchen Scandal will afford us a rare insight into how President Akufo-Addo’s “Kitchen Cabinet” operates and how destructive they have been to national progress," his introductory paragraphs to the exposé read.

Ablakwa also alleged that the Attorney General, Godfred Dame, has so far issued three legal opinions in favour of Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko.

The advice is in support of claims being made by Gabby's law firm, Africa Legal Associates (ALA) as it seeks to exact an amount of GH¢187m from the government for West Blue, a company previously contracted by the John Dramani Mahama government for port services.

Ablakwa in his latest investigative publication titled: "Kitchen scandal" cited how Gabby who had in 2015 sternly opposed the West Blue deal, had years on become lawyer for the company and was seeking damages for the company in respect of a contract that the current government varied after coming into office.

He accused Dame of issuing these opinions irregularly stating that the 16th December, 2022 advice in particular was without recourse to "inputs from the Ministry of Finance and the Ghana Revenue Authority as both institutions had not submitted their written arguments."

"Gabby and Godfred now state emphatically that despite the fact that the value-for-money condition precedent was not met, the contract is still valid. The duo have also questioned the post value-for-money contract downward revisions and are insisting that the colossal West Blue demands are met," he added.

He made six demands of president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo asking him among others to ensure that no funds are advanced to Gabby's request.

Watch Adom-Otchere's full remarks in the video below:

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