The General- Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Aseidu Nketia, has described the risk assessment report on the Agyapa deal churned out by the Office of the Special Prosecutor as a rip-off.
Addressing the media at the party’s press briefing on the Agyapa Royalties deal, the NDC General- Secretary noted that, the valuation of the country’s gold royalties and “transaction agreements that President Akufo-Addo and his corrupt New Patriotic Party approved” was also “an affront to the sovereignty of our dear nation”.
“The OSP has found, that the Mandate Agreement under which billions of cedis have been paid to companies like Databank, which is owned by the President’s cousin and Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta; African Legal Associates, which is owned by another cousin of President Akufo-Addo, Gabby Otchere Darko and their foreign partners, are illegal and therefore null and void.
“What Ghanaians must be interested in at this stage, are the steps the Akufo-Addo government is taking to retrieve the illegal payments that they have made to these companies. This is because you cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand”.
In ascertaining the veracity of the reported, Mr. Aseidu Nketia opined that if indeed the agreements under which these companies were made are “null and void, then so are the payments made thereto, hence must be refunded to the State”.
Citing various CSOs and stakeholder’s response to the Agyapa deal as a “bad deal for Ghana”, he further maintained the deal was fraught with irregularities and driven by corruption, cronyism and sheer greed, all in furtherance of the state-capture agenda of President Akufo-Addo”.
“The NDC and several patriotic Civil Society Organizations such as IMANI, ISODEC, PIAC, ASEPA, the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), IDEG, the Coalition of CSOs on the Extractive Sector, among several others, have long maintained, that the “Agyapa” deal is a bad deal for Ghana and that, it was only a matter of time for the stench from this criminal enterprise called “Agyapa” to become obvious to everyone.
“These were the very reasons why the NDC Minority in Parliament boycotted the approval of the deal when it was brought before the august House of Parliament”.
Mr. Aseidu Nketia revealed that, the leader and Flag-bearer of the NDC, John Dramani Mahama is on record to have served notice that he will abrogate the deal when elected.
“And the entire NDC, have vehemently opposed what we considered to be a corrupt deal, cooked within the corridors of power for the benefit of a few greedy family relatives of President Akufo-Addo, at the expense of the State. These issues that we in the NDC have constantly raised relative to the “Agyapa” deal, are what the Special Prosecutor has come to confirm.
“The Corruption Risk Assessment conducted on the “Agyapa” scandal by the Special Prosecutor confirms our long-held position that the whole Agyapa deal is daylight robbery”.
