Notoriously Corrupt Agyapa Deal: Gov’t Will Not Listen To Anybody- Tone-Death Ofori-Atta Warns

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has made it clear that government is hell-bent on railroading the corruption-laden Agyapa Mineral Royalties deal through, and in doing so, the government is not going to listen to any contrary view.

Responding to questions about the deal at a press conference in Accra, he said that the government has no ear for the people because if the same government had listened to the people in respect of the Free SHS, they would never have implemented the program.

“We will never have done the Free Senior High School (SHS) if we listened to other people,” he said, claiming that 400,000 people now had a chance to do something with their lives because the government was firm with its decision on the policy.

Ofori-Atta also called for support for the thievish deal in which the President and his family are seeking to collateralize Ghana’s mineral royalty receipts for themselves for the next 15 years in a shady set up that Ghana’s first Special Prosecutor flagged as corrupt.

According to the prevailing suspicion, Ofori-Atta, a cousin of the President and other family members would secretly go and buy shares in the Agyapa SPV once listed and be receiving the mineral royalties of the country for the next 15 years.

This was why as part of the deal, the directors of the SPV were not to be known to Parliament.

The Agyapa SPV would invite “investors” to lend US$500milliuon to Ghana and then for the next 15 years the supposed investors would be receiving the country’s mineral royalty receipts.

Ofori-Atta’s tone-deaf declaration comes after the Mineral Income Investment Fund (MIIF) announced it intends to repackage the deal for consideration by Parliament.

According to the MIIF, it is developing a new strategy to list Agyapa on the Ghana and London Stock Exchanges by the end of the year.

“It is not something that the country needs to drop, that is an asset,” he claimed.

According to him, the question should not be about whether monetizing mineral royalties or listing the company was good or bad, but “…Rather, if you have a problem with the process, let’s articulate that and cure it. Let’s not drop something that will be good for us and help reduce our debt exposure.”

The Akufo-Addo government had packaged the deal in the form of collateralising mineral royalty receipts as a special purpose vehicle with the intent of listing it on the London Stock exchange for a US$500million loan.

The Ofori-Atta-led Agyapa team estimates Ghana’s Mineral Royalties for the next 15 years to amount to some US$ 1 billion, yet experts have warned against the dubious estimation, saying the royalties would be worth at least US$ 3 billion.

As part of the packaging, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta who has a certain ubiquity to all dirty deals in the Akufo-Addo government, had ensured that once listed, the directors of the Special Purpose vehicle would not be known.

The stinking deal had been railroaded through the 7th Parliament in which the NPP enjoyed a clear majority.

All was going to plan – the Minority was raising questions and being ignored by the government of Akufo-Addo and the NPP Majority side lined up and rubberstamped the deal – until then Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu stepped in and demanded to be allowed a corruption risk assessment.

Amidu would find out later that the deal was full of dirt involving President Akufo Addo himself.

He described Akufo Addo as the “Mother Serpent of corruption” When he [Akufo Addo] reportedly attempted to personally arm-twist Amidu to “shelve” the damning report against the Agyapa deal.

Among some of the serious corruption in the deal includes Ken Ofori-Atta contracting a South African company Imara Pty to front for his private company Databank Investment Limited as an advisor.

The Finance Ministry had also vandalized the Public Procurement law of Ghana and had paid out fees to supposed advisors by apparently laundering the money.

Meanwhile, a Private legal practitioner, Mr. Kofi Bentil, is promising nothing but resistance to the rascals behind attempts to reintroduce the Agyapa Mineral Royalties deal.

“The grand robbery called Agyapa is still being cooked. Every Bandit will be resisted!!

“You wreck our nation and now want to steal our God-given resources. What kind of people are you??” he wrote.

Again, a popular youth activist of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Bernard Oduro Takyi, has vowed to switch camps to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) if the leadership of the NDC allows the Akufo-Addo government to pass the Agyapa Mineral Royalties deal.

“If NDC sits down and allows Agyapa to pass, then I will return to my NPP, I swear God,” he vowed.

According to him, the passage of Agyapa will mean the NDC’s second massive letdown of Ghanaians after it failed to stop the passage of the controversial and thievish e-levy.