National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Bongo in the Upper East Region, says he was forced to leave late former Vice-President Amissah Arthur’s burial service, abruptly to oppose the reviewed Ameri deal in parliament.
Edward Bawa says he was prompted on what he describes as a ‘bad deal’ being presented to the house.
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“We were prompted that the AMERI deal was a bad one and so they intentionally waited till Amissah Arthur’s burial before tabling it so I was forced to run to the parliament house to make sure that the bad deal was not reviewed,” he said.
Per the re-negotiated Novation and Amendment Agreement, Ameri Energy would have been bought out and handed over to Mytilineos International Trading Company for 15 years.
Per that deal, Mytilineos offered to pay Ameri Energy off with $52,160,560, while the government of Ghana would have topped it up with $39 million.
The deal was, however, cancelled by President Akufo-Addo, even though he had earlier approved it through an Executive Order while it pended parliamentary nod.
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But Mr Bawa questioned Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko’s continued stay in office, if, indeed, he ‘misled’ the President into granting executive approval to the agreement.
He believes it was a calculated attempt by the government to ‘loot’ from the state.