Political analyst, Jonathan Asante has said the opposition National Democratic Congress’s (NDC’s) charge to push that the state to collect undeserved monies paid in the Agyapa royalties deal positions them as a nationalistic party.
General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, who addressed the press earlier this week said the deal, which is a by-product of the Minerals Income Investment Fund Act passed in Parliament in 2018 and established the Fund to manage the equity interests of Ghana’s mining companies and receive royalties on behalf of the government, was surrounded by “alarming proportions of corruption, unprecedented nepotism and grand thievery”.
Asiedu Nketiah said, “billions of cedis have been paid to companies like Databank, which is owned by the President’s cousin and Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta; African Legal Associates, which is owned by another cousin of President Akufo-Addo, Gabby Otchere Darko, and their foreign partners” in the deal and described it as illegal.
The party has, therefore, given the government a week to retrieve the monies being paid to President Akufo-Addo’s cousins and other family members at the centre of the deal or face their wrath, hinting of a massive protest on the streets of Accra.
Mr Asante explained the advocacy of the NDC, when sustained, will inure to the benefit of the party as many floating voters in the country are yearning for a leadership that will salvage the current mess created by the Akufo-Addo administration.
“Ghanaians are livid about the series of corruption cases that have engulfed this government…If the NDC is able to pursue this cause, Ghanaians will believe in them as a party that can be in charge when voted to power,” the political analyst told host, Kwame Minkah.
