PRESIDENT Akufo Addo Exposed in Attempt To Push Agyapa Through Backdoor

President Akufo Addo’s actions in the fraudulent Agyapa Royalties deal has come under scrutiny after he ordered the crooked Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta to return the agreement to Parliament for review after the scathing revelation by the Special Prosecutor.

Critics think referring the agreement to parliament to review it was wa dangerous ploy by President Akufo Addo to aid Ken Ofori-Atta to allow the Agyapa deal to pass through despite the serious allegations of corruption and fraud made against it by the Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu.

Indeed, the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta had already hinted at the fact that the Agyapa deal will be passed through parliament notwithstanding the serious allegations hanging over it. 

The Financial Times of London reported on October 25, 2020 in an interview that he will list the Agyapa deal as soon as the December 7, elections are over. “The expectation was to have done this [flotation] before the year and we will stick with that,” Mr Ofori-Atta said in a joint interview with Kofi Osafo-Maafo, the chief executive of Agyapa.

Clearly, the Finance Minister was stating unequivocally that he had no intension of stalling the Agyapa deal in spite of him being accused of corruption and serious conflict of interest by awarding the Agyapa contract to himself through his private company, Databank.

Whatsup News can confirm the conspiracy to whitewash the Agyapa deal through Parliament one more time because Mr. Ofori-Atta made his statement to the Financial times after he had seen the risk assessment report on the Agyapa deal done by the Special Prosecutor.

The Jubilee House had tried to cover up the report, according to Martin Amidu, by keeping it hidden for over two weeks after he had submitted it to both the Jubilee House and the Finance Minister.

Indeed, it took Martin Amidu to sound the alarm that the Jubilee House was trying to cover up the report for President Akufo Addo and the Jubilee House to quickly make the report public.

“The analysis of the risk of corruption and anti-corruption assessment was completed and signed by the Special Prosecutor on 15th October 2020. The Special Prosecutor in a letter with reference number OSP/SCR/20/12/20 dated 16th October 2020 conveyed the conclusions and observations of the anti-corruption assessment to H. E. the President and the Hon. Minister of Finance as a matter of courtesy before informing the public,” Martin Amidu said in a statement released on November 2. 2020.

“Two weeks is more than too long for this Office to continue withholding the announcement of the completion of its sixty-four (64) page report to the public. It is important that this Office has the freedom to discharge its anti-corruption mandate and keep the public informed. I have, therefore, decided to bring the facts of the conclusion of the anti-corruption assessment of the Agyapa Royalties Transactions by this Office to the attention of the public and to avoid the continued speculations on this matter,” he said.

Eventually, President Akufo Addo and the Jubilee House was forced to release the report. However, immediately after releasing the report, the President asked the Finance Minister to send the agreement back to Parliament for review, despite the fact that he had already accented to the deal and his administration had claimed the agreement had been exhaustively reviewed. 

“Does the President’s referral annul the earlier Presidential assent given to the Agyapa deal?” Asks Dr. Ato Conduah, a renowned lawyer and a member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP)

“Under which rules of Parliament can our Parliament revoke its earlier approval which has already been assented to by the President? Is the President’s referral of the Agyapa deal back to Parliament, an admission of the procedural defects, process infidelity, bureaucratic omissions and violations pointed out in the Special Prosecutors report?” Dr. Conduah stated in a statement made available to Whatsup News.

Dr. Conduah raises suspicion about a possible Orwellian tactics being adopted by the Akufo Addo administration, because the same crooked Finance Minister who had been indicted in the report is the one responsible to take the agreement back to a rubber stamp Parliament for review.

“What role will the Minister who has since denied the procedural defects, infractions and omissions put-out by the Special Prosecutor, play in the reappraisal or review discussions in parliament? Don’t we, citizens, feel let-down by these critical government appointees whose handiwork is now attracting public odium and opprobrium? Or is it business as usual?” Dr. Ato Conduah stated in his 15-point query of President Akufo Addo’s tactic of referring the fraudulent agreement back to Parliament.

Meanwhile, all major civil society groups in Ghana have called for the Agyapa deal to be cancelled. Politically, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has warned that it will resist the deal and cancel it if it wins power in the December 7 general elections.

Incidentally, there are disturbing links between President Akufo Addo and his two close cousins as the initiators and the possible brains that cooked the Agyapa Royalties scandal that seeks to give over 75% of Ghana’s mineral royalties to an opaque private company Agyapa Royalties registered in a notorious tax haven on the British Virgin Islands.

One of the frontline transaction advisors to the questionable SPV is Africa Legal Services, a law firm owned by Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, who is also a direct cousin to President Akufo Addo, while the main transaction advisor is Databank owned by Ken Ofori-Atta. 

According to the Special Prosecutor, Ken Ofori-Atta tried to hide his conflict of interest by using a dummy or decoy company called Imara Corporate Finance Pty, a company based in South Africa.

Further probe by Whatsup News at the Registrar-General’s Department indicates that the supposed subsidiary of Agyapa Royalties called ARG Royalties Limited has its first CEO and director named as Yaw Baah.

Incidentally, Mr. Yaw Baah, a lawyer who lived in the UK, is a Senior Research Fellow at the Danquah Institute (DI) founded by Gabby Asare-Otchere Darko. He also worked closely in the research department of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s 2016 campaign.

Again, checks reveal that another director of ARG Royalties is called Felicia Ashley. She was the Vice President and Head of Human Capital and Administration at Ken Ofori-Atta’s Databank. Ms Ashley was later moved to the Finance Ministry headed by Mr. Ofori-Atta to be the Head of General Administration of the Ministry of Finance.

This closely-knit triangle linked to the Presidency and Finance Minister Ofori-Atta has reinforced the suspicion that the Akufo Addo administration systematically plotted the grandiose  Agyapa loot.