Documents in the custody of The New Crusading GUIDE put to rest the controversy and media speculations about the supposedly missing or misappropriated $3.5 million from the sale of the GNPC oil rig.
GNPC’s drillship, Discoverer 511 was sold in July 2001 by the Kufuor administration for $24 million to defray debts of the corporation which included some $19.5 million owed Societe Generale, $1 million as the company’s legal fees and other expenses; and a balance of $3.5 million paid into government’s account in Ghana International Bank PLC (GIB) in London in UK.
Already, speculations were rife in the media that some officials of the Kufuor administration had embezzled the $3.5 million dollars balance.
Evidence available to this paper indicates that on July 25, 2001, the Treasury Officer at the Office of Ghana’s High Commissioner to the UK, Mr. Emmanuel Bani in a letter titled: OPENING OF ACCOUNT- TREASURY OFFICER SPECIAL DOLLAR INVESTMENT ACCOUNT, instructed the GIB to open a dollar account for the Commission.
This paper also has in its possession another letter written by Mrs. L. Buamah, the Assistant Retail Manager of GIB, informing the Commission that the account had been opened as instructed by Emmanuel Bani. The letter in question read: “WE wish to advise you that we have opened a USD Deposit Account in your name at this office to which we have allocated the above number and have sent for collection your bankers draft for USD 3,500,000.00”
Readers would recall that the November 4, 2013 edition of this paper in fulfillment of an earlier pledge published a documentary proof of the financial trail relative to the issuance of the $3.5 million Banker's Draft, its transmission to Chase Manhattan Bank, New York via the Ghana International Bank (GIB) and related information.
