Chairman of the Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas, Dr Steve Manteaw has extolled the Special Prosecutor for the investigations that he conducted into the Agyapa Royalties agreement.
Dr Manteaw said the findings of the Special Prosecutor vindicate the position taken by the CSOs to the effect that the deal was not in the interest of Ghana therefore, should be reworked on.
The CSO rejected the deal when it was first introduced on the floor of parliament.
Ghana’s legislature approved the controversial agreement on Friday, August 14 despite a protest from the Minority.
A group of CSOs led by Dr Manteaw noted that the government of Ghana and Parliament rushed in approving the agreement.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, August 25, Dr Manteaw said: “What we are telling government is let’s slow down…let’s have more transparency, more consensus building around the approach before we go forward with the approach.
“I don’t know of any national emergency that warrants that we should rush the process to raise funds for development.”
The Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu who asked the Finance Minister to hold on with the scheduled initial Public Offer (IPO) on the deal until after his investigations, said he has concluded his investigations into the deal regarding the alleged corruption-related issues that were raised against it by civil society groups, the Minority in parliament as well as the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Accordingly, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has asked the Finance Minister Mr Ken Ofori-Atta to return the Agyapa Royalties agreement to Parliament.
Speaking on this development in an interview with TV3’s Martin Asiedu-Darteh on the News@10 Monday November 2, Dr Manteaw said “The CSOs stand vindicated because we said the deal should go back to parliament for it to be reworked on.”
“The president intervention was a bit too late and disappointing. Where was the president when we raised issues with it especially conflict of interest. We were very surprised that the president did not find it needful at the time to intervene.”
In a subsequent Facebook post on this development, he commended the Special Prosecutor for the work he had done on the agreement.
“All those who gave up on the Special Prosecutor should be revising their notes. I’m revising mine,” he said.
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana