The New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Parliamentary Candidate for Akwatia Constituency, Mr. Ernest Yaw Kumi has described the call by the opposition, National Democratic Congress (NDC), for the infamous Agyapa Royalties deal to be probed as deceptive.
The parliamentary Candidate stated that it was fair for the NDC to ask for accountability regarding the Agyapa deal. However, he asserted that judging the deal as corrupt and promising prosecution of people involved without conducting an investigation is deceptive.
He further stated that the NDC’s position that the Agyapa deal did not materialize after a whopping sum of USD 12 million was spent on it qualifies the deal as corrupt is unfounded. He emphasized that the opposition should thoroughly investigate the deal before it classifies it as corrupt.
“We all know Agyapa is a new company that is being incorporated. Under pre-incorporation, you can incur such causes, it could be profit, it could be a loss but what matters is that at the time when the company has been incorporated, the promoters are to give an account of what the monies are used for”.
Mr. Ernest Yaw Kumi
Mr. Ernest Yaw Kumi also refuted the NDC’s claim that the natural resources of the country have been mortgaged by the incumbent government. He disclosed that the government leveraged – but not mortgaged – the mineral deposits of the state to get some capital into the market.
The capital expected from the aborted Agyapa deal he claimed, was to be used to undertake some special projects of the government.
Additionally, he argued that the Agyapa Royalties was intended to be a mining company that finances other mining companies with projects in return for mining royalties or revenue.
Mr. Ernest Yaw Kumi further emphasized that leveraging the country’s mineral deposit against the future, as the Agyapa deal sought to do, is the same as borrowing against Ghana’s future which many governments have done severally.
“The NDC’s position right from the beginning is to characterize the whole deal as being corrupt yet still they are not putting any substantive evidence on the table for us to discuss. For me, I am not against you coming out with corrupt deals and exposing them so far as you have evidence”.
Mr. Ernest Yaw Kumi
The Parliamentary Candidate for the Akwatia constituency also disclosed that the ECOWAS Court of Justice was unable to substantiate any allegations of corruption against the Agyapa deal after some Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Transparency International (TI) took the issue to the court.
NDC’s Agenda To Propagate Propaganda
Mr. Ernest Yaw Kumi subsequently alleged that the NDC’s accusation of corruption regarding the Agyapa deal is based on the Fmr. Special Prosecutor, Esq. Martin Amidu’s Corruption Risk Assessment. He argued that a corruption risk assessment does not prove the act of corruption, it only suggests the likelihood of corruption.
Accordingly, the Parliamentary Candidate accused the NDC of unnecessarily conjecturing what the money spent on the Agyapa deal could have been used for. He claimed that the NDC only aims to incite public disapproval against the NPP and the incumbent government.
More so, Mr. Ernest Yaw Kumi alleged that the NDC’s sudden enthusiasm to fight corruption is a plot to win the public over to its side for the general election. He maintained that the NDC is deliberately looking for corruption where there is none.
He argued that issues concerning corruption, nepotism, and conflict “are questions of fact and the law”. He stated that if the NDC wants to continue making allegations of corruption against the government, it should make these allegations based on the facts and according to the laws of Ghana.
The comments of the NPP Parliamentary Candidate followed the opposition’s allegations of corruption against the incumbent government in a recent press conference held by the NDC. The Parliamentary Candidate maintained that the accusations made by the NDC were evident cases of propaganda aimed at discrediting the government.
Conclusively, the NDC despite the allegation of corruption it made against the incumbent government, has failed to provide significant evidence to support its allegations. The NPP also has failed to set facts straight concerning the Agyapa Royalties deal.
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