The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has said that he empathizes with the Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu as Ghanaians call on the latter to resign over the Sputnik V vaccine procurement contract.

According to him, Ghanaians are not being sympathetic to the Minister who tried against odds to obtain vaccines to ensure that Ghanaians are protected from Covid-19 in the peak of the pandemic.

Mr Ofori-Atta, said this in an interview on Accra-based Asaase radio. The Finance Minister indicated that he expected Ghanaians to move on with their lives as the vaccine deal with businessman, Sheikh Al Maktoum was terminated with the middleman agreeing to refund money for the unsupplied doses of the vaccines.

“The middlemen have said they can’t supply the vaccines; which means that they have broken the contract, and then we get our $2 million back, and then we move on. But to be so unsympathetic to somebody who felt that what can he do to ensure that there is continuity for Ghanaians, and now sit comfortably to chastise him without empathizing with him; I am empathetic of him,” he said.

This comes in the wake of Ghanaians mounting pressure on Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, to resign following revelations in the report of the ad hoc Parliamentary Committee that probed the Sputnik V vaccine contract, that the Health Minister breached procurement and constitutional regulations.

He added that, “he expected that others will also realize the type of pressure that he was under at the time and his commitment to ensuring that Ghanaians are safe.”

Mr Ofori Atta also disclosed that he had a number of interviews from European media outlets asking why he made payment for the vaccines and he replied saying: you sit there and ask me why I am paying more for vaccines when you are hoarding those vaccines, and I have one out of a hundred people being vaccinated whereas you have eighty over a hundred, and then you sit there and ask me why are you doing this.”