NDC sues CHRAJ over SAHARA

The controversy surrounding the lifting of oil from Nigeria by the Sahara Energy Resources deepens as the main opposition NDC has taken the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to court over the matter.

The NDC has filed a writ at an Accra High Court seeking among other relief, an order directing the Commission, which is the defendant in the suit to investigate allegations over the agreement between the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR). In particular, the NDC wants the CHRAJ to investigate the role of Government Energy Advisor, Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby, Energy Minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah MP and others, the Ghanaian Chronicle reports say.

The party is also praying the court for an order directing CHRAJ to investigate who the owners of Sahara Energy Resources of Nigeria/Ghana are, and the cost to the Ghanaian consumer and taxpayer of the implementation of the contract.

In an accompanying statement of claim the plaintiff party avers that the defendant is a body established by an Act of Parliament pursuant to Article 216 of the Constitution, whose functions include the investigations of all instances of alleged or suspected corruption and the misappropriation of public money.

The statement claims that in recent times it has alleged that the government had reached an agreement with its Nigerian counterpart under the NNPC is to supply TOR with 90,000 barrels of crude oil per day on credit basis.

Continuing, the plaintiffs further allege that pursuant to the agreement, the government of Ghana, represented by Hon. Kan-Dapaah, Dr. Wereko-Brobby, and other persons including Messrs Ken Ofori-Atta, Dr. K. Nyantakyi and a Mr. Goka, all known gurus, financiers and well-connected fellow travellers of the NPP, have nominated a company hitherto unknown in the field and cobbled together in the last few months to undertake the job of lifting crude oil from Nigeria to Ghana.

The NDC further contended that under the agreement, Ghana would be paying over US $30 per barrel at a time when the world price hovers around $25.

The statement said the people involved in the deal will be making for themselves anything between US$90,000 and US$450,000.

The statement also alleges that under the contract should there be a downturn at TOR so that they are not able to take a particular consignment of crude oil with the new 90 days credit, Sahara could sell the crude oil offshore and pocket the profits.

The statement of claim concludes with the contention that should any of these allegations be proved, it would be the "mother of all corruption ever in the country and monumental rip-off of the Ghanaian taxpayer."

Meanwhile, the Chronicle quotes a deputy Director of the CHRAJ as saying that the Commission had already entered appearance and was preparing to set the writ of summons aside, "We have been wrongly sued," the deputy Director contended.