A Member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s Communication Team, Eric Amoako Twum, has called for further interrogations into the Former Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko’s claims on the controversial Ameri deal.
During his appearance on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana, Mr. Amoako Twum demanded that inasmuch as the Former Energy Minister has the floor to make such statements and the accused, the right to respond, “we have to question the motivations and even the timing of those things for some conversations.
He explained that Mr. Agyarko “always tries to be objective when it comes to these conversations. There are certain responsibilities that for example, if you are made a Minister of State or a Cabinet Minister, you are supposed to abide by. The issues have to do with swearing an oath, secrecy and collective responsibility and all that.”
The NPP communicator said that he is unhappy when people act as saints when an issue involves them.
“I have challenges with persons who for one reason or the other, almost feign sainthood anytime there is an issue that is surrounding them and then when it comes to other conversations, then they lose their objectivity,” he said on Wednesday.
Boakye Agyarko speaking in an interview with Kumasi-based Asanteman FM for the first time opened up on how the Ameri deal re-negotiation happened.
According to him, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, the cousin of President Akufo-Addo singlehandedly re-negotiated the Ameri deal without the consent of the committee set up by the government to work on the deal.
The former Energy Minister said that when he confronted Gabby on the matter, he told him to be quiet because his boss, the president is aware of the development.
Narrating conversations he had with Gabby he said:
“I told him I was onboard a flight travelling. Then he (Gabby) told me that he was sending me a document via email so I should check. When I arrived safely and went to my hotel room, I opened my email address and saw the document. To my surprise, Gabby had, on the blind side of the Committee set up and approved by the President to renegotiate with Ameri Energy Group, contracted a law firm to engage Ameri Energy Group and completed their negotiation and recommended a certain company to operate the Ameri Power Plant and extended the contract to 20 years,” he said.
“I sent Gabby a mail and asked him what authority he had to do that. And I told him Cabinet has given specific instructions to follow and his response was what makes me think that my Boss (President Akufo-Addo) doesn’t know about what he has done…so I kept quiet,” he recalled.
He added that when he spoke to President Akufo-Addo on the matter, the president asked him whether there was something wrong with what Gabby did.
Boakye Agyarko said that he told the president that, “the authority to renegotiate the terms of the Ameri Power Plant doesn’t lie in the hands of Gabby and that the proposal the firm he contracted made had violated all the Cabinet instructions and extended the contract to 20 years.”
By: Akua Karle Okyere | Metrotvonline.com | Ghana
