Former Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu has descended heavily on President John Dramani Mahama over the government’s response to the conviction of the former Managing Director of Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), who was found guilty by a court in the United States of paying a bribe of over $1 million to officials of the Government of Ghana in the Aska power deal.

In a strongly worded statement, Amidu, a former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, laughed at suggestions that the state security is now going to look into the scandal to find the government officials implicated and bring them to book.

He indicated that his Office of the Special Prosecutor started looking into the matter after it was referred to it in 2020.

“Asante K Berko was appointed the MD for TOR by the NPP government of Nana Akufo-Addo to take effect from January 1, 2020. He resigned from TOR on April 15, 2020, following the US-SEC civil suit already referred to herein, without the Nana Akufo-Addo government, which accepted his resignation, referring him to the OSP for investigation and possible prosecution as it had done when it wanted the blood of John Mahama in the Airbus SE-Ghana bribery scandal. The modus operandi in this AKSA and the Airbus cases are similar,” he said.

The former Special Prosecutor, therefore, called on the President to inform the general public about what happened during the OSP investigation that started during his tenure.

He added that suggesting that the government is now going to investigate the matter is an insult to the people of Ghana.

“With the investigative tools and other tradecraft available to the Government of Ghana (GoG), a completed investigation docket must have been ready by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) or other law enforcement agencies in respect of other criminal aspects of the Asante Berko-AKSA-Ghana bribery deal before the National Democratic Congress (NDC) won the December 7, 2024, elections. Indeed, any responsible GoG committed to fighting graft must have been prosecuting the Ghanaian entities and individuals involved in the case at the same time that the United States Government (US-Gov) was prosecuting Asante Berko in a US court.

“It is, therefore, insulting to the intelligence of the electorate for the Attorney-General to be informing the public for the first time since the John Mahama government’s ORAL investigations that the government, through the Attorney-General, is collaborating ‘with his United States counterparts to bring to book persons who are implicated in the bribery scheme related to the 2014-2017 power plant development contract between a Turkish energy company and the Government’,” he said.

A photo collage of some NDC, NPP members


Amidu’s remarks come after Deputy Attorney General, Justice Srem Sai, disclosed that Attorney General, Dominic Ayine, was engaging his US counterparts following the conviction of the former Goldman Sachs executive, Asante Kwaku Berko, concerning the AKSA power project in Ghana, in which, according to US prosecutors, the businessman participated in a scheme involving more than US$1 million in payments to Ghanaian officials to secure approvals for the project.

Berko, a former Managing Director of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) and a dual US-Ghanaian citizen, was found guilty by a federal jury in New York of conspiring to violate the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), violating the FCPA, and conspiring to commit money laundering.

Details surrounding the conviction of Asante Kwaku Berko, who also served as the former Managing Director of the Tema Oil Refinery, have revealed that several Ghanaian officials allegedly received bribes totalling over $1 million to facilitate a power plant deal during Ghana's power crisis in 2014 and 2015.

According to US court documents, several Ghanaian officials were allegedly bribed to facilitate the Turkish-based company's bid to secure the power plant project. The alleged recipients included government officials and Members of Parliament.



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