Mahama Calls On Akufo-Addo to Withdraw Agyapa Deal and Sack Finance Minister 

Akufo-Addo and Ken Ofori-Atta

Accra, Ghana, November 3, 2020//-The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama today called on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to completely withdraw the Agyapa Royalties deal and sack the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta.

The damning report by the Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu does not bode well for the Finance Minister and dents the reputation of his government if he fails to relieve him of his job, according to the former President Mr Mahama.

Speaking on Morning Starr programme which was transmitted live on GhOne TV and several radio stations across the country,  Mr Mahama said that the report by Mr Amidu was not surprising since the issues raised were well known.

In his words: “[The report] is not surprising, the minority said it, 13 CSOs said it and so it is not surprising that the Special Prosecutor has said it. The issue for value for money those were issues that came up…but Special Prosecutor kicked in and has raised the issues…the issue is not returning it to parliament, it should be withdrawn completely.

“The President must be even, in terms of the CHRAJ report on the PPA boss [that led to his sacking]…but he [Akufo-Addo] has been quiet on that front but that is where nepotism kicks him because we all know that the Finance Minister is his cousin.”

Economy is in the ICU

Touching on the economy, he re-echoed  that “Ghana’s economy is in crisis and urgently needs crisis management”.

Mr Mahama explained that the 16 percent projected budgetary deficit of the country by the end of year 2020 is inimical to the growth of the economy.

“Our economy is in the ICU like I said sometime back. We are going to end the year with debt to GDP at almost 80%. And that will be historically the highest.

The economy is in crisis and will need crisis management from whoever comes into office next year. When we come into office we will carry the people along and bring all the recognisable groups to buy into our solutions. You need to carry the people along with you”.

Cooking figures 

Mr Mahama accused Mr Ofori-Atta economy is in the ICU of cooking the books in order to achieve better ratings from the international business community.

Last month, he told TV XYZ: “The IMF has been a bit hypocritical in all these issues, we complained that the finance minister was cooking the books and that and he was not including big-ticket expenditure to the data.

Former President John Dramani Mahama and flagbearer of NDC

He used that to fool all the international agencies, he used that to fool the IMF, he used to fool fitch, he used that to fool the economic intelligence unit that they were better managers of the economy and but that is not true”.

Mr Mahama added: “With the kind of resources we left him, I’m surprised and shocked at his very abysmal performance.  We did all we did with just one oil field and now he has many but look at the huge debt and still they have nothing to show aside Free SHS which even being funded from our oil revenue. We’ve always warned that Ofori Atta is cooking the books and they didn’t listen”.

African Eye Report 

 

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