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Central Regional Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Bernard Allotey Jacobs says President Akufo Addo was not misled into approving the controversial Novation and Amendment Ameri deal as claimed by the government.

According to him, some elements at the Presidency he described as ‘Mafia cartel’ are behind the ‘botched’ deal and has, therefore, asked that such elements are shown the exit too.

He accused those ‘Mafia cartel’ of working hard to swap the former Minister, Mr Boakye Agyarko with the Education Minister, Matthew Opoku Prempeh, a move which he said failed to succeed.
 
“There is a mafia around the Presidency; for what we are seeing and what he heard yesterday, we know that these mafias wanted to swap the energy minister with NAPO as the education minister“, he noted.

Mr Agyarko has been accused of allegedly misleading the president into approving the AMERI deal through an executive order.

The novation and amendment agreement was seeking to hand over the AMERI plant to a third party, Mytilineos for 15 years.

Ghana would have ended up paying over Ghc1 billion under the new arrangement.

The joint committee on Finance and Energy of Parliament rejected the new deal because it had no signatures from the Attorney General and Finance minister.

Speaking on Adom FM’s Morning show “Dwaso Nsem” Tuesday, Mr Allotey Jacobs lauded the President for removing the energy Minister, considering the circumstances around the deal.

He, however, urged the President to, as matter urgency, disband the mafia cartel at his outfit because they will only end up making his government unpopular.