Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, cousin to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has denied reports circulating on social media that he was involved in the controversial Ameri deal renegotiation.
In a disclaimer regarding a picture that captures him, his cousin and now Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko, in a meeting with some officials of Ameri, Mr Otchere-Darko said: “Yes, I am aware of this picture which has been making the rounds in the media for some time now”.
“The twist, being fronted by the NDC, is that the picture is evidence that I, Gabby, and my cousin, Edward, are involved (or have been involved) somehow or the other with Ameri. It is a completely false allegation. I have absolutely nothing to do with Ameri. I have no business with them and have had no business with them. Even more materially, I have nothing to do with the renegotiated deal on the Ameri power plant that was brought before Parliament in July. I also know for a fact that Edward has nothing, and I mean nothing, whatsoever to do with Ameri or any deal involving Ameri and the power plant. He has no social media page, so please allow me to speak on his behalf as well. In fact, the Edward I know would have nothing at all to do with Ameri!
“The picture you see was taken when the Ameri people visited the Ridge campaign office of Nana Akufo-Addo in December 2016, when John Mahama was still president. You can see several copies of the 2016 NPP manifesto on the table and a framed campaign photo of Nana and Bawumia on the wall. Let me stress this material fact: it was the only day that Edward or myself ever met the Ameri people or any of their representatives.
“We were both part of Nana’s campaign. The Ameri people wanted to meet Nana, Edward’s brother, and we felt it necessary to be clear on what they wanted to talk about with the big man. We both had very strong views against the original Ameri deal and mine, in particular, was no secret.
“Let me stress, Edward and I have not been in any way or form involved with Ameri or any of the parties in this renegotiated deal on the Ameri plant that was sent to parliament last month. We have had no involvement or discussions, directly or indirectly, with any of the parties on this deal – not the Ministry, not Metka, not Mytilineos and certainly not Ameri. For the avoidance of doubt, not only was I not consulted by any of the parties on this transaction, my firm, was also not consulted.”
The NPP administration recently began taking steps to amend portions of the controversial $510 million deal signed by the John Mahama administration.
The current government believes that there was no value-for-money in the deal signed by the NDC administration, hence the renegotiations.
The renegotiated deal, which has now been cancelled by the president, was expected to be approved by parliament when the House resumes from recess.
However, the move has created controversies.
For instance, the Senior Staff Association of the Volta River Authority (VRA) has described Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko, as an “incompetent” appointee, indicating that contrary to his claims that Ghana will gain $405 million from the new power deal with Ameri Energy, the country will rather lose up to $472 million.
“There is no such savings anywhere in the new contract. This nation will be worse off since Ghanaians will rather be paying an additional cost of US $472 million to Mytilineos International Trading Company for absolutely no work done,” Chairman of the Senior Staff Association of VRA, Cephas Duse, stated at a press conference on Monday, 6 August 2018.
He said the amount is “beside the US$255 million we have already paid for the first two-and-a-half years”.
“Is it not ironic that in renegotiating a contract which is supposed to have been overpriced by US $150 million, we end up increasing the cost by US$727 million? Is this the type of review we were promised?” he questioned.
Mr Duse stated: “We think that this misleading comparison and computation was disingenuously done by the Energy Minister to deceive Ghanaians. This shows that the Honourable Minister is incompetent, lacks integrity or absolutely not on top of his job”.
The VRA Senior Staff Association stated emphatically that the Energy Minister's claim that the Novation and Amendment Agreement will save the country some money, is "misleading, flawed and inaccurate".
Source: classfmonline.com
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Always blaming inocent people for their wicked and evil and corrupt deals in govt.?An old man of no use stealing Ghana money with family members after selling all family properties. You big stomach tells the whole story of your lies to Ghanaians.
Note that the deal was rejected at the Parliamentary Sub-committee of energy. It was rejected by the NPP people on the committee because it did not contain the advice of Finance Minister and Attorney General.
In all this, one thing is evident about the Ghanaian and that is shear ENVY, HATE and HYPOCRISY. No doubt Mr Boakye Agyarko is a brilliant guy and has a lot of admirers including some of us. We should also understand that we have a president who sees and knows more and equally learned. There was shout all over the place about how bad the AMERI deal was and the need to take action. The president equally sees a wrong act and takes action and then the same Ghanaians turns round to shout why the president has taken action. Very absurd. The worse part is the use of factionalism,tribe, attack on his relatives and linking the issue to completely different cases. Can't we discuss issue in Ghana without making mention of tribe? I listen to Atta Mills brother on why Atta mill invited him to be a special personal advisor. The hate for his family people is nonintellectual and only smack of ENVY for that family. Every leader works with people he could trust especially the inner circle team.
i think Nana's main problem is his family. they will cause his fall if he is not careful. i have said my own
Our ignorance and stupidityy is beyond measure. Democracy and freedom of opinion is indeed not for ALL. Note the following; 1. Every senior person worth his salt has a gate-keeping person or team one must see before going to the big man. Its normal even in my house the gate-man and security will ask before they allow in. 2. Any business man or group, seeing that a man is potentially the next president would want to get closer to him. It is the beginning of establishing rapport for lobbying. this is also very normal. 4. This picture was probably taken 2 years ago or one year or even today. What does it show about Ameri? nothing in my opinion! 5. Business is not emotions. for instance if we cant agree on Ameri, it does not mean we cant talk or have other discussions. So Ghana, lets be open minded and get some education. I see the Politicians playing on your intelligence and making castles out of hamlets!
This is a dog fight.
Then you people are nation wreckers. So before you even came to power, you were conniving with Ameri for this corrupt deal to be reached should you come to power. Which means nana addo himself had been dealing with ameri long before he won the election. This explanation rather worsens your situation. It doesn't even make sense to me if you say you were meeting with ameri in 2016, the same group you were accusing of duping Ghana with a bad deal the the former government reached with them. You and your uncle think everyone is an ediot in this country.
What locus has Gabby in the nana addo government. As i know he had not been appointed a minister or deputy. I have also not heard about he appointed as head of any institution. He is not even a district chief executive, so what has he been doing in government business. Its amazing the way nana addo is running the country with his kinsmen. It looks as if everyone is doing whatever he likes.
So even in opposition, one will have to meet Gabby Okyere Darko and Bunty Akuffo Addo before you meet the main man. I guess that is where all the curroption begins.Kennedy Agyapong nd Nyantakyi were right afterall.Akuffo Addo is not in control.