A convener of the pressure group–#Fixthecountry– Mawuse Oliver Barker-Vormawor has urged the Minority to stop the passage of the Agyapa Deal in Parliament with their last blood.
The private legal practitioner who was speaking on Abranaaso on TV XYZ Saturday morning observed that the government was bent on passing the bill at all cost to mortgage the country’s natural resources.
He said the minority MPs in Parliament have the numbers to resist the deal and so they should not think of heading to Supreme Court over the matter.
“…If the country is for us then we need to rise up to stop the Agyapa deal,” Barker-Vormawor stated as he advised the opposition parties to hit the streets to resist the passage of Agyapa.
“It isn’t about the Supreme Court. How many judges do you know? Everyday you send your matters there and they defraud you; lawyers take your monies and you keep going there, ” he said in Akan.
To him, Ghanaians ought to show their anger about the mismanagement of the country’s resources by the Akufo-Addo government now rather than waiting to cast their ballot in 2024.
He believes the current leadership of the country has no interest of a single Ghanaian at heart but rather themselves and descendants stressing that it is for that reason the Finance Minister who is a cousin to president Akufo-Addo is bringing the bill back to Parliament.
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta on Thursday indicated that the controversial deal ought to be taken through the appropriate process in order to make it work because it could reduce the country’s debt exposure.
Speaking during a press briefing to announce details of the African Development Bank 2022 Annual General Meeting he stated the Agyapa deal “is not about whether the monetisation of mineral royalties or listing of the company is bad or good, it is good because that is how you raise resources.”
“The question is the process of doing that. If we have a problem with the process, let’s articulate it, let’s cure it, but let us not drop something that would be good for us and reduce our debt exposure,” Ofori-Atta said.
Agyapa Deal
In August 2020, Parliament approved the Agyapa Minerals Royalties Investment Agreement and four related documents to monetise Ghana’s future gold royalties.
Under the agreement, Agyapa Mineral Royalties Limited which has been incorporated in Jersey near the UK is expected to receive and manage royalties from 16 gold mining leases over the next 15 years or more.
In exchange, the firm will list on the London and Ghana Stock Exchanges (GSE) and raise at least $500 million for government to invest in infrastructure, health and education.
The deal will allow private people to buy a 49 per cent stake in the firm.
Resistance
It is on the back of this that Barker-Vormawor has vowed to lead a big street protest to kick against the deal.
He says some people in government and their agents are going to enrich themselves with the agreement to the detriment of Ghanaians whose lands are plowed to get the natural resources.
Source: Myxyzonline.com
