Founder and President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has asked Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to recuse himself from the controversy in the Agyapa Royalties deal.
According to him, though Mr Ofori-Atta is a competent person, his role in the Agyapa deal has dented his image and the best he can do is to recuse himself.
“If I am the Finance Minister, I will tell the President I want to recuse myself from the deal and allow other officers to take charge. At the barest minimum, this is what I expect the President to ask the Finance Minister to do. He, together with his Deputy, Charles Adu Boahen, must recuse themselves,” he said.
A corruption risk assessment into the agreement by Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, found numerous breaches of law and due procedure, including the process adopted in the selection of transaction advisors for the deal.
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Mr Amidu’s corruption risk assessment, for instance, makes claims of a possible deliberate attempt to use Data Bank; a company co-founded by Mr Ofori-Atta, as a decoy for the transaction advisors, Imara.
Although President Nana Akufo-Addo has directed the Minister to take the deal back to Parliament and resolve issues raised in Mr Amidu’s report, Mr Cudjoe says the President must act and allow the Minister to recuse himself.
He made this known on Adom FM’s morning show Dwaso Nsem, Wednesday.
To Mr Cudjoe, it was important that the Finance Minister contests the claims made by the Special Prosecutor because somehow it affects their careers.
He said Mr Ofori-Atta brought the matter upon himself, adding that “he could have just allowed the processes to continue the way we had envisaged.”
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