NDC Gives Akufo-Addo 7 Days Ultimatum to Retrieve “Billions” Dirty Agyapa Deal

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has issued a seven-day ultimatum to President Akufo-Addo to retrieve “billions” in illegal fees that his government has paid to his cousins and cronies involved in the Agyapa Minerals Royalties Deal.

At a press conference today, General Secretary of the NDC, Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia, served notice that if monies illegally paid to Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta’s Databank, Gabby Asare Otchere Darko’s law firm, Africa Legal Associates, and their surrogates including Imara Corporate Finance Limited (Pty) of South Africa, are not retrieved, the NDC will lead nationwide demonstrations against the government.

“The NDC hereby demands, that President Akufo retrieves for the state the billions of cedis his government has illegally paid under the shady “Agyapa” deal to Databank, which is owned by his cousin and Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta; African Legal Associates, which is owned by another cousin of his, Gabby Otchere Darko; and their foreign compradors, within the next 7 days, failing which the NDC and other like-minded progressive forces, shall embark on series of protest and legal actions to ensure that every pesewa paid to these companies are refunded back to the State for nation building,” Mr. Asiedu Nketia said. 

The ultimatum comes as the NDC’s formal response to the corruption risk assessment that Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, conducted into the Agyapa deal which entails the Akufo-Addo government converting Ghana’s royalty receipts from gold minerals into a Special Purpose Vehicle and using it to raise funds on the London Stock Exchange.

The Special Prosecutor’s corruption risk assessment found that the whole SPV was formed illegally through a Mandate Agreement that a Deputy Minister of Finance, Charles Adu Boahen signed, to hire Imara Corporate Consult as transaction advisors.

Imara got hired because the Finance Ministry rigged the bid for it. And the Finance Ministry rigged the bid for Imara because the South African company was only fronting for Data Bank financial services, a company owned by the Finance Minister. 

This makes the Agyapa SPV a textbook example of self-dealing on the part of the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, who was appointed Finance Minister because he is the cousin of President Akufo-Addo.

Apart from the criminal bid-rigging and illegal Mandate Agreement signed by the Deputy Finance Minister, the SP also found that Charles Adu Boahen had also given himself the benefit of the doubt and purportedly directed Imara to hire other consultants for Agyapa. 

These other consultants include Africa Legal Associates, another company owned by another cousin of President Akufo-Addo, Gabby Asare Otchere Darko.

The SPO underscores the illegality of Imara, a foreign company, hiring consultants for Ghana’s Ministry of Finance by pointing out that only the Public Procurement Authority is clothed with constitutional power to hire consultants for a State spender like the Ministry of Finance.

Even more damning, Ken Ofori-Atta and his lackeys at the Finance Ministry, illegally agreed on a Success Fee with Imara if Agyapa goes through and Ken Ofori-Atta refused to make the success fee known to the SPO.

Meanwhile, the SPO has invited the government to launch criminal investigations into the deal, but rather than doing so, President Akufo-Addo had directed that the deal be taken to Parliament, where the NPP MPs had passed it for reconsideration.

The NDC has vowed that if wins the elections in December, it will probe and punish the cast of manipulators behind the Agyapa stinking deal.

“Finally, we must serve notice, that this “Agyapa” scam, like other similar corrupt acts of the Akufo Addo government, will not go unpunished. We have just about twenty-seven days to Vote for Change as the Americans have done. The new government of His Excellency John Dramani Mahama and the NDC “Insha Allah”, shall investigate this Agyapa robbery and punish all the culprits and masterminds behind it through the Operation Sting crusade. Let it be known that crime has no expiry date. It is just a matter of time,” Mr. Asiedu Nketia said.