Akufo-Addo Rubbishes Calls For The Head of Health Minister Agyemang-Manu

-Over Dubious Over Sputnik V Contract.

President Akufo-Addo is making light, the scandal involving his Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang Manu, vandalizing procedures to contract middlemen in the Middle East for the supply of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccines and failing to secure the supplies.

In addition to blindsiding Parliament to the contract, the Health Minister had later lied to Parliament that the country had not paid anything to the middlemen, an amorphous company owned by Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum.

However, despite the seriousness of the scandal, the President joked before a gathering in the Bono Region where he is on a visit that Kwaku Agyemang Manu is receiving hot slaps as Minister of health.

“There are a lot of people from the Bono Region in my government; including the Minister of Health, who is currently receiving slaps. He is an indigene of Dormaa. He has really suffered in that Health Ministry and is still suffering,” the President said Tuesday.

The lighthearted response of the President appears to be an indication that the Health Minister will not be fired or prosecuted as is being demanded by the Public.

Already, the Health Minister has taken a vacation in the wake of the scandal, with timing that has come to many as a snob by the Akufo Addo administration.

This week, the Health Minister has been under pressure to resign or be sacked by President Akufo-Addo for bypassing Parliamentary and Cabinet approvals and then sculpting a deal with an amorphous company of Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum for the procurement of the Sputnik V vaccine.

Kwaku Agyemang Manu’s deal entailed Ghana agreeing to pay USD19 per vaccine even though the Russians were selling their product at USD10 per vaccine.

The Health Minister has claimed he was forced to go into that deal because there was an urgent need to have Ghanaians vaccinated against the covid-19 disease and that he was not “thinking properly” when he signed the contract.

However, the deal would eventually fall through. Agyemang Manu would later lie to Parliament Ghana had not paid a dime to the middlemen, only for it to emerge that indeed Ghana had made a down payment of $2,470,000 50% of the total amount involved.

The Health Minister himself has since written to Sheikh Al Maktoum for a refund and the sheik, who is cousin of the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum, has written back agreeing to refund the money.