[ad_1]
Special prosecutor Martin Amidu has called a petition filed by a civil society organization, STRANEK, “opportunist and populist,” urging his office to dive into the controversial Agyapa royalty deal.
In response to the group, the Special Prosecutor said that his office has already initiated independent investigations into the matter and, therefore, cannot commit resources to follow up on STRANEK’s request.
“Your letter under reference, therefore, appears to this Office as an opportunist and populist undertaking on your part to take credit for the processes already initiated independently by this Office. In any case, your letter that contains mere speculations does not present any reasonable basis for this Office to allocate more resources to your request from the public purse, “says the letter from the Special Prosecutor.
STRANEK in its request to the Office of the Special Prosecutor earlier this month said that it wanted the office to investigate how the government calculated the value of the royalties that are transferred to Agyapa Royalties and which entity made the assessment.
“The Agyapa agreement is shrouded in illegality, secrecy and conflicts of interest, and is contrary to the interests of the good people of Ghana. The agreement raises serious concerns that require your urgent attention, ”read excerpts from the petition.
But that request has been rejected.
While admitting that the Agyapa mineral royalty issue was in the national interest, Martin Amidu said it was surprising that the OSC asked his office to investigate the deal when evidence abounds that his office had already started working on it.
He said the OSC petition smacks of an attempt to take credit for the work his office is already doing.
Read excerpts from Martin Amidu’s answer below:
The Agyapa Royalty Agreements and related issues have been matters of national interest since they were approved by Parliament on August 14, 2020.
It is also a notorious matter of public knowledge and notice that this Office on September 10, 2020 invoked its mandate in accordance with Sections 2 (1), 29 and 73 of Law 959 and Regulation 31 (1) and (2) of LI 2374 to examine any problems arising therefrom.
(See “Special Prosecutor demands information on the Agyapa agreement from Parliament, September 11, 2020” and “Parliament will provide the Special Prosecutor with documents on the Agyapa agreement today, September 14, 2020” – citifmonline.com and radio; Modern Ghana; Ghana Web; and other media also published the same story with different headlines) Furthermore, it is in the public domain that Parliament and other public institutions have already responded to the request for information and documents from this Office.
Therefore, the letter referred to appears to this Office as an opportunist and populist undertaking on its part that takes credit for the processes that this Office has already independently initiated. In any case, your letter, which contains mere speculations, does not present any reasonable basis for this Office to commit more resources to your request from the public purse.
Kindly accept the assurances of the Special Counsel of the highest consideration.
— citinewsroom
