A group calling itself the Coalition for Social Justice has described as reckless the Bureau of National Investigation’s (BNI) exoneration of the MD of Bulk Oil and Storage Transport (BOST) Alfred Obeng Boateng of any wrongdoing in the sale of contaminated fuel to Movenpiina.
According to the group, the move by the investigatory body was nothing but an obvious attempt to stifle the truth.
“For the Coalition of Social Justice, we are totally disgusted and alarmed, appalled by the attempt to stifle the truth, by the attempt to cover up the truth from coming up as far as this matter is concerned,” the Convener for the group Sammy Gyamfi stated on Morning Starr Wednesday July 5, 2017.
The Minister of Energy, Boakye Agyarko Tuesday July 4, 2017 announced at a news conference that the BNI cleared Mr. Obeng Boateng of complicity in the transaction with Movenpiina.
That notwithstanding, he said the eight-member committee he constituted to probe the circumstances leading to the sale of the 5 million litres of the contaminated product will still go ahead with its work.
But he said the committee will not probe allegations that had already been responded to by the BNI and the National Security.
In his reaction however, Mr Gyamfi stated that there seemed to be a collusion between the Ministry, the National Petroleum Authority and BOST to ensure that the perpetrators of the “stinky transactions” go scot-free.
“Is it not strange…that even before the committee he [Mr. Agyarko] set up begin their work he has come out to prejudge the work of the committee by exonerating the man who is a subject of investigations?” he wondered.
According to Mr. Gyamfi, the BNI exoneration has rendered the eight-member committee “redundant and impotent” because it has gone into the very issues which are the subject of reference for the committee.
Describing the exoneration as a product of collusion, Mr Gyamfi said the BNI lacks the locus and the necessary expertise to clear Mr Boateng.
“…The BNI which is a non-regulator, the BNI which doesn’t have any technical expertise or locus in the downstream petroleum sector has come out with a fraudulent and bogus report seeking to exonerate a man who is a subject of investigations,” he told Morning Starr host Francis Abban, adding “we think that it is an attempt to cover the mess of people who have been lawless.”
