You are here: HomeNews2017 10 19Article 592303

General News of Thursday, 19 October 2017

Source: peacefmonline.com

AMERI deal: Kweku Boahen dares government to go to court

Deputy Communications Director of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kweku Boahen, has said the governing New Patriotic Party should seek redress at the law court if it thinks the Africa & Middle East Resources Investment Group (AMERI) deal stinks.

On UTV’s ‘Adekye Nsroma’ programme, Kweku Boahen dared President Akufo-Addo and his government to go to court if they feel the agreement signed under the AMERI deal was not genuine.

He expressed his surprise at how they are now complaining about the AMERI deal when their parliamentarians at the time opted and stood strongly for the deal.

“They should be able to tell us what has changed,” he said.

“See we are tired of this current government, always trying to make sure to find something wrong with achievements made by the previous government. We wake up every day to meet their criticism on a project we embarked on,” he added.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Adansi Asokwa, K.T. Hammond, has revealed to the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament that Africa & Middle East Resources Investment Group (AMERI) Energy fleeced Ghana to the tune of $150 million and went on profit shopping without investing a penny in the power deal with the Government of Ghana in 2015.

Mr K.T. Hammond appeared before the Mines and Energy Committee yesterday to present fresh dossier on the AMERI deal for it to determine whether the parliamentary approval of the deal ought to be reversed or not.

He said AMERI Energy did not only violate the agreement with the then government but also hid very crucial information from the Committee that looked at the nitty-gritty of the agreement before its approval by parliament in March, 2015.

However, the minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) boycotted the session that was deliberating on the urgent motion, saying the motion to withdraw the deal was not debated in parliament before being forwarded to the Mines and Energy Committee.

Mr KT Hammond, who was the ranking member of the Committee when the deal was approved, filed an urgent motion just before the current parliament went on recess, asking the house to rescind its approval of the deal following fresh documents he had stumbled upon which make the deal a stinking one.