Former Deputy Minister for Power under the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration has recounted how his mobile phone was seized by the Akufo-Addo administration and sent to the United Kingdom for a third party analysis when the current administration began investigations into the procurement of African and Middle East Resources International Group (AMERI) Power Plant.
According to John Abdullai Jinapor, upon assumption of office of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), his personality and that of his other colleagues came under attack in connection with the AMERI power deal.
In his view, the NPP believed there was some kind of irregularities in the power deal and so decided to investigate and possibly renegotiate it.
In doing so, Hon Jinapor narrated that in the early morning of 28 Jul 2017, before he left home for Parliamentary duties, three gun-wielding police personnel with AK47s, under the ‘instruction from above’ phrase, met him at his gate and requested to search his house and retrieve documents in connection with the AMERI deal.
“Whilst the leader of the team was calm and sober, the other two were very harsh and abrasive. Their message was straight: ‘You are under investigation,'” he narrated.
In the presence of his wife and children, the police personnel, he said, however, failed to produce a court order when he, Mr Jinapor, requested one.
“They only replied that they were carrying out a directive from above.”
The former minister said upon the advice of his wife, he obliged and after a thorough search of his house, the police requested his phones, laptop and other documents they thought could help in their investigations.
After the infamous raid, Mr Jinapor said he was instructed to report to the Police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) the next morning, which he did but had to wait for several hours before his statement was taken.
The Yapei-Kusawgu Member of Parliament disclosed that days or a week after his electronic gadgets had been confiscated for forensic analysis, the police called and requested the password to his iPhone.
He initially requested to come to the police CID to unlock it with his fingerprint but only to be told that the phones had been sent to the United Kingdom for a third party analysis adding, “Without hesitation and believing in our collective innocence, I provided the password to my phone.”
According to him, he and his colleagues, whose homes were also searched, were vilified and branded as criminals and had to inform the police anytime he travelled outside the country.
He said a committee was subsequently set up under the then Minister for Energy, Boakye Agyarko, to investigate the transaction and renegotiate the deal but could not find anything wrong with it after numerous travels to Dubai to probe the deal.
He further stated that the outcome of the so-called negotiations by the NPP government turned out to be a big scandal with bloated and padded figures which resulted in public outrage and subsequent dismissal of Mr Agyarko.
Six years after the President John Dramani Mahama administration had procured the AMERI Plant and the related events thereof, ownership of the plant has finally been transferred to the Government of Ghana as envisaged, making Ghana take full ownership of the 250-megawatts (MW) power production plant from AMERI Energy.
The 10-unit barge, with the capacity to generate 25MW each, totalling 250MW, which is a dual fuel plant and can run on both light crude and natural gas, is expected to be moved to Anwomaso in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region to bolster system reliability, reduce transmission losses and improve power supply.
Ghana: Distributed Renewable Energy Generation Witnesses Steady Growth In 9 Years
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
