The latest letter from the Attorney-General Gloria Akufo on the scandalous Agyapa/Asaase Royalties transaction dated August 12, 2020 has disturbingly revealed how the Finance Ministry and the Jubilee House have fraudulently pushed the agreement through despite four different warning that the deal was harmful to Ghana.
The Attorney General had described the Agyapa deal as “onerous”, “unconscionable” , and a violation of Bank of Ghana Act. But earlier today, August 28, 2020, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, President Akufo Addo’s cousin and the main champion of the Agyapa deal has claimed that after discussions with the AG, she had changed her stance.
In the interview with Accra-based Asempa FM, Gabby went on to claim that the August 12, 2020 letter which is the AG final acceptance of the terms of the shady agreement is not in circulation, claiming the exposé of the older advice from the AG was politically motivated.
However, Whatsup News can categorically state that Gabby lied when he claimed the AG’s warnings had been heeded to in the agreement. Whatsup News is in possession of the August 12, 2020 letter that Mr. Otchere-Darko referred to and the AG is still insisting that the harmful deal had been pushed through against her advice.
In fact, the transaction advisors have gone behind the AG to insert even more damaging provisions into the agreement, making Ghana liable to legal suits while indemnifying the faceless private investors and the transaction brokers on Wall Street.
For instance, the faceless sponsors of the Agyapa deal have secretly maintained provisions in the agreement that basically destroys Ghana’s sovereignty in the transaction. An angry AG ordered them to go back and scrap the subversive provisions.
“Sovereign Immunity and Waiver of Defences (B4.151- We maintain our position that Sovereignty resides in the State properly so-called and not in limited liability companies (even with the State being the majority shareholder) or statutory bodies. Although the Fund and Ghana Revenue Authority are statutory bodies, they are not sovereign and therefore cannot enjoy sovereign immunities in respect of “protected assets,” the AG stated.
From our sources, this latest warning against bastardising Ghana’s sovereignty was maintained in the final agreement that was passed in Parliament a couple of weeks ago.
“We note that this is a new provision introduced into the Agreement which seeks to hold the Republic and the Fund jointly and severally liable for their respective obligations and undertaking,” the AG complained in the August 12 letter.
The AG then ordered the transaction sponsors at the Ministry of Finance and friends of Mr. Otchere-Darko to go back and change the insidious terms that would have adversely left Ghana vulnerable to suits from Agyapa investors.
The AG said they should go and change the particular provision to the following: “If a third party not being a party to this Deed, commences proceedings against any Indemnified Person in any court of competent jurisdiction, arising out of or in connection with this Deed, the Transaction, or the provision by any of the Banks of assistance to the MOF or any other member of the Group in connection with the Transaction (the Third Party Proceedings), MOF as a party may join such Third Party Proceedings in such courts In the jurisdiction in question, regardless of whether proceedings have been initiated or are ongoing in another JurisdIction. The MOF irrevocably agrees that a Judgment or order of any such court in connection with such proceedings shall be conclusive and binding on it and may be enforced against it in the courts of any other Jurisdiction.”
Whatsup News have gathered from sources that President Akufo Addo himself has mounted pressure on the AG to let the matter go, despite her strong opposition to how Ghana’s sovereignty is being “raped”.
Already, Jubilee House hounds have been unleased on the Ministry of Finance and the Attorney General’s office to smoke out the angry whistleblowers who had leaked the documents.
In the stinking agreement, the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) which was set up in 2018, requires a private Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to “monetise” Ghana’s mining royalties that sum up to US$ 200 million annually. Agyapa Royalties was incidentally picked as the lucky SPV. It was eventually registered in a notorious tax haven on the British Virgin Islands often used by corrupt politicians to hide identifies of “Shell companies” they form to siphon public funds.
However, paper trails are linking the onerous deal as being pushed to personally benefit the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko and the Jubilee House “Mafia”.
For instance, the transaction advisors to the hair-raising deal included a law firm owned by Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, who is President Akufo Addo’s cousin and right-hand-man at the Presidency. Investigations by Whatsup News reveals that Asaase/Agyapa Royalties has relationships with companies and individuals that are directly connected to the Finance Minister and the Jubilee House.
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