The scandalous multi-billion dollar Aker Energy has been moved to the front-burner once more as ex-President John Dramani Mahama has triggered a button for a full disclosure on the controversial deal.
At a meeting this week with the Catholic Bishops Conference in Accra, the former president persuaded the clergy to question President Akufo Addo why his government would renegotiate a contract to the disadvantage of Ghanaians when there was low risk to the government.
“There was low risk in the Aker energy situation, so why would the government reduce its stake by about 48% to 18%?”
The former President also observed that some of the key persons involved in the renegotiated Aker energy deal are linked to the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta.
Whatsup News can confirm that the key players set up to benefit from the renegotiated deal that would have brought Ghana about US$ 30 billion are intricately linked to Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.
Whatsup News important leads into the intricate connections within the scandalous Aker Energy deal, and is in the process of making contact with Joseph Babatunde Ampah and one David Adomako, both Directors of Quad Energy, a local Ghanaian company in the eye of the scandal.
Several civil society organisations, including policy think-tank, IMANI Africa have already raised serious concerns about massive corruption in the deal.
Indeed, IMANI estimate that Ghana will lose approximately US$30 billion to private pockets if the Aker deal is allowed to go through.
Already, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) is currently at the centre of a lawsuit for handing over its 10% stake to Aker and its partners in the highly promising Deepwater Tano Cape Three Points (DWT/CTP) oil fields.
In 2015, Explorco Ghana Limited, a subsidiary company of GNPC, acquired 10% interest in the DWC/CTP oil block at a time when HESS Corporation, the then operator of the DWT/CTP oil bloc was offloading part of its stake in the block.
Parliament reportedly approved a budgetary allocation of $47 million for the acquisition. Before GNPC could conclude the processes on the acquisition of the 10% stake, there was a change in government and with it came a change in the board and management of GNPC.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration is accused of pushing the Ghanaian Parliament to renegotiate the deal by inexplicably cutting down Ghana’s stake in the vibrant oil field.
Ghana was in a position to benefit almost 70% stake in the oil field, however, the government’s proposal to Parliament pushed for Ghana’s stake to be dropped to less than 30% and a potential loss of US$10 billion.
The bulk of the SDWT would then go to AGM/AKER and Quad Energy. According to IMANI, AGM Energy is partly owned by Joseph Siaw Agyapong of Zoomlion, while Quad is a phoney cover for Aker Energy because, the other director of Quad Energy, David Adomako is also a Board Director of Aker Energy.