‘Pathetic manufacture of facts’ – Atta Akyea replies Boakye Agyarko on Ameri allegations

Abuakwa South Member of Parliament, Samuel Atta Akyea has replied former colleague minister Boakye Agyarko on the allegation that he had a hand in Agyarko’s removal in 2017 as energy minister.

Atta Akyea, in a press release dated August 16, 2023 said that he had intended to leave the accusation to die after it was first reported by an online portal.

The decision to contest the claims and state his side of the facts, he said, was motivated by Agyarko’s interview with Kumasi-based Sompa FM, where the same allegations were peddled again.

The MP stated four facts to back his innocence. They are as follows:

1. I was never involved in the Ameri matters, whether in cabinet deliberations, in Parliament or anywhere else.

2. As the sitting Minister for Works and Housing, I never directly or indirectly influenced Parliament (whether as a whole of any of its mies) in a bid to frustrate or defeat the work of a colleague Minister. Some of the members of the joint committees on Mines and Energy and Finance are continuing Members of Parliament who cannot corroborate Hon. Boakye Agyarko's pathetic manufacture of facts.

3. Relating to the renegotiation of the Ameri Power Plant Agreement, I never contacted my seniors at the Bar, Lawyers Addison and Vicky Bright, regarding their Committee work

4. Of and concerning the subject matter, I never entered into a conclave with Gabby Otchere-Darko or any other person (dear or alive) to override cabinet decisions. Hon. Boakye Agyarko is giving me more power than I could have in President Akufo-Addo's government.

What Agyarko said:

According to him, some leading figures in the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government were not happy with a renegotiated deal that was less costly than the deal under the John Dramani Mahama government.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential hopeful, narrated how NPP stalwart, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, re-negotiated the Ameri deal without the consent of the 18-member committee set up by the cabinet to work on the deal, which was headed by lawyer Philip Addison.

The former energy minister said that when he spoke to President Akufo-Addo on the matter, the president asked him whether there was something wrong with what Gabby did.

Boakye Agyarko said that he told the president that “the authority to renegotiate the terms of the Ameri Power Plant doesn’t lie in the hands of Gabby and that the proposal the firm he contracted made had violated all the Cabinet instructions and extended the contract to 20 years.”

Agyarko added that Akufo-Addo agreed with his reasoning but went ahead and asked him to forward the deal Gabby had negotiated to the committee that was set up to renegotiate the deal.

He said that after forwarding Gabby’s proposal to Philip Addison, he (Addison) was so angry about what had transpired and the committee went on with its work.

Agyarko said that the former Minister for Works and Housing, Samuel Atta Akyea, threatened that he would mobilise Members of Parliament (MP) against him should he present the deal that was worked on by the committee to the house.

The former energy minister said that when he took the report of the committee to Parliament, the then Speaker, Aaron Mike Oquaye, told him that the house was against the proposal in the report and that his best bet was to get the deal through an executive instrument.

Find Atta Akyea's full statement below:<>