Member of Parliament for Sekondi, Andrew Egyapa Mercer has said he disagrees with the opposition National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) order for government to retrieve monies paid to consultants during the Agyapa Mineral Royalty transaction.
This comes after the NDC’s National Communications Officer, Sammy Gyamfi gave President Akufo-Addo a seven-day ultimatum to retrieve the billions of cedis his government “illegally paid” under the shady Agyapa deal to Databank.
According to the NDC, consultancy fees paid to Databank and its “foreign dummy”, owned by his cousin and Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta; African Legal Associates, which is owned by another cousin of his, Gabby Otchere Darko; and their foreign compradors must be refunded.
However, reacting to this, the MP cited the Ghana Gold Transaction that the NDC sought to implement in 2011 and asked whether the consultants who were engaged in the agreement refunded the money when the deal was truncated.
“They engaged consultant from Kofi Buckman and Associates, SAS Finance Group, Bullion Finance and McQuary. Were these people paid or they did they work pro bono? And the monies that were paid to them, was it refunded when the deal was truncated?” he quizzed.
“Look, tell the NDC to give us a break, Ghanaians want messages that are superior to what it is that they know their track record to be,” he stated.
He indicated that the NDC are notorious for throwing dust in the eyes of Ghanaians, noting that the opposition in 2008 accused former President John Agyekum Kuffuor of having defecated Ghana’s gold from the Bank of Ghana, but could not substantiate their accusation with evidence.
“You know the times that we are in and the desire for a major political opposition to harp on whatever it is they can hold on to in order to hoodwink Ghanaians for votes,” he said.