Bow-tie loving Energy Minister, Boakye Kyeremanteng Agyarko, has officially gone down in the history books as the first Cabinet Minister under the Akufo-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration to have been given the marching off orders.
And that is coming barely eighteen months after the NPP won the 2016 polls.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo fired the former Vice President of the Bank of New York and chairman of NPP North America on Monday over a deal that does not look good to many people.
A statement from the Presidency announcing the action said the President has directed Mr. Agyarko to hand over to the lands and natural resources minister John Peter Amewu.
His dismissal comes after the President was reportedly misled into approving the new AMERI deal which had been rejected by Parliament through an Executive Order.
Before he was shown the exit, Agyarko was perhaps the ‘darling boy’ of majority of NPP faithfuls. Having solved the ageless ‘Dumsor’ and reducing electricity tariffs, he had become a household name in Ghana, with many describing him as a God-sent to the Akufo-Addo government.
Barely two weeks before he was sacked, he was in the positive side of media reportage and exhibited a great sense of humour on the floor of Parliament when the MP of Abirem engaged him over electricity for communities in his constituency.
But here he is, gnashing his teeth over his predicament.
Mr Agyarko’s dismissal is in connection with the Novation and Amendment Agreement of the controversial $510 million Ameri deal signed by the John Mahama administration in 2015.
Mr Agyarko came under heavy criticism when he claimed that Ghana will gain $405 million from the new power deal with Ameri Energy but it was discovered that the country will rather lose up to $472 million.
However, his dismissal has been criticized by the opposition political parties as they feel Mr Agyarko has been sacrificed because there are more people involved in the deal.
Contributing to a panel discussion on Peace FM's morning show ‘Kokrokoo’, the Central Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Allotey Jacobs says he “disagrees with the President”.
“…I don’t know the Energy Minister in person but I admire him from afar. He brought sanity to the energy sector. There is more to it (his dismissal); there are a lot of people behind it so Ghanaians needs to know exactly what transpired. All the same what goes around comes around,” he said.
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