The political music chair being performed by the two biggest party over recent judgement debt slapped on the country by a UK court, is far from over as the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has accused the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of willfully caused the country to lose USD 170 million due to abrogation of GPGC EPA power deal.
The party at a press briefing on June 28, 2021, enumerated the role played by its government while in office as against the narrative and justification by the current administration, under whose supervision the deal was terminated.
The party has distanced itself from the debt saying it came “as a result of the reckless and wrongful termination of the GPGC EPA by the Akufo-Addo government, and their sloppiness and incompetence in defending same at the Arbitration and in Court”.
“The then Minister for Power, Boakye Agyarko, who wrote to terminate the Agreement and his Deputy at the time, knew and actually conceded that they had no legal basis to terminate the Agreement the way they did. They very well knew that terminating the Agreement that way could potentially occasion a financial loss to the State. Yet, they did so willfully knowing fully well what the consequences of their actions were” stressed by the party’s Communication Officer Sammy Gyamfi.
The NDC described the abrogation of the power deal as wrongful termination which the Akufo-Addo government could have avoided to save the country from the financial loss quagmire it has dumped it, saying the entire act was “unpardonable”.
“As a party, we are very sad that all of us as Ghanaians will have to cough up this colossal amount of money, USD$170 million, which is equivalent to GHS1.2 billion cedis or 10.2 trillion Old Ghana cedis and which accrues interest daily, compounded on a monthly basis. This colossal amount could have been channeled into the construction of thousands of dormitories and classroom blocks to end the obnoxious double-track system which is undermining the quality of secondary and tertiary education in the country, or the provision hospital beds and other facilities to end the much-dreaded no-bed syndrome which is claiming so many precious lives”.
The NDC as thus called for a full scale investigations into the circumstances surrounding the “unlawful” termination of the GPGC EPA, particularly the alleged so-called recommendation by the Ahenkora-Committee for the termination of the said GPGC EPA, since every available evidence pointed to issues of fraud.
The party also demanded all officials of the Akufo-Addo government who were directly or indirectly involved in the processes leading to “this huge financial loss to the State are held responsible and punished for same”.
The part has however assured that “But in the likely event that President Akufo-Addo, “the Mother Serpent of Corruption”, who is himself complicit in this matter fails to act, a future NDC government will investigate this matter and ensure that those responsible for the wrongful termination of the GPGC Agreement and the avoidable judgement debt it has caused the nation, are brought to book”.
