Attempt by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Dr. KK Sarpong to chide some CSOs for being critical with AGM-Aker Energy deals, has got equal response from Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Benjamin Boakye.
This followed an interview Dr. KK Sarpong granted on Citi TV‘s current affairs show ‘The Point of View’ during which he took exception to criticisms by civil groups saying the CSOs are badmouthing the oil deal.
Mr. Boakye in an open letter to the GNPC boss intimated that the media attack being launched on people who are critical of the said deal by the latter, is nothing but a diversionary tactics which goes to support assertions of the critics that the deal stinks to high heavens.
He wrote “I have followed a series of interviews granted by Dr. KK Sarpong and sometimes froze, literally, in complete disbelief of what damage he is doing to the country in an attempt to litter the media space with hate for CSOs. By design or not, he injects extreme nervousness than I have seen. The strategy was evident; he pontificates his achievements in public life to sedate the minds of Ghanaians to think that he is doing the right thing with the Aker transaction.”
Mr. Boakye also noted in an attempt to avoid public scrutiny of the Aker transaction, the GNPC Boss spent time bastardising CSOs while portraying that the civil groups lack knowledge of the entire deal.
“On the point of lack of knowledge, he got worryingly deflated by Bernard Avle on some specific questions CSOs have raised. His last bullet, though, appears a push for an unfounded twist of imperialist agenda, operated through CSOs, to disrupt what he wants to do with the transaction.”
He argued that “As a civil society, we are happy to remain civil if Dr. Sarpong will choose that route. However, the fundamental questions we have asked remain unanswered”.
He said rather than shadow-boxing the CSOs, it will be in the interest of Mr. Sarpong and GNPC to come to the public arena to debate the issues., adding that It is time for the section of the Corporation pushing the transaction to realise that the diversionary tactics are crumbling, and the truth is triumphing.
“He tries hard to discredit CSOs in the crudest way possible, so the public will listen to him, not the CSOs. Additionally, he displays an unpardonable lack of control over the Aker transaction, which makes his amnesia of the history of Aker/AGM in Ghana almost forgivable”, Ben Boakye wrote.
