News:
December 1, 2010
The Minority in Parliament have threatened to expose some dirty secrets about the Vice President John Dramani Mahama if he fails to apologies over his harsh comments on the conversationalist of Ghana’s oil.
Addressing a group of some NDC youth over the weekend, John Dramani Mahama expressed surprise that the Minority NPP is vehemently against any attempt to collateralize the oil, with the excuse that oil is a blessing and that it shouldn’t be collateralize in advance.
The Vice President described as “foolish, baloney” the Minority’s position that the state must not be allowed to use the country’s expected oil revenue as collateral for securing loans for infrastructure development.
Addressing the media in Accra on Wednesday December 1, Mathew Opoku Prempeh, NPP MP for Manhyia said the Minority will reveal the main interest of the Vice President in the collateralisation of Ghana’s oil if he fails to apologise for his unsavoury remarks.
A letter made available to Parliament by Dr Opoku Prempeh and signed by the Vice President indicates that John Mahama had assured some Chinese investors and made some giant promises to collateralise Ghana’s oil to enable their companies undertake some infrastructural developments in the country.
Meanwhile, in a sharp response to the threats by the Minority and the subsequent letter presented to parliament, Spokesperson to the Vice President, John Jinapor rubbished the allegations made by Mathew Opoku Prempeh.
John Jinapor questioned the authenticity of the said letter, describing it as “fictitious.” He said a complaint had been lodged with the Police to commence investigations to unravel the source of the said letter.
He stated categorically that the Vice President did not sign any letter to collateralise Ghana’s oil to any company. According to John Jinapor, the move by the Minority is a propaganda gimmick to dent the President’s reputation.
Mathew Opoku Prempeh, in the opinion of John Jinapor, is not a “serious MP” and challenged the Minority to carry out their threat to expose any dirty secret of the Vice President.
He maintained that the Vice President’s remarks did not sound insulting, adding that John Mahama is not ready to apologise to anyone.