Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta
Leading member of the governing New Patriotic Party, Razak Kojo Opoku has shot down calls by some members of the opposition National Democratic Congress for Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta to resign over the botched Sputnik V deal.
Some members of the opposition party have roped Ken Ofori-Atta into the saga, calling for his head for okaying payment to the intermediary, Sheikh Al-Makhtoum.
Speaking in a GNA interview, Razak Kojo Opoku described such calls as moot and without any grounds.
He noted that the desire by the NDC to drag Ken Ofori-Atta into the issue is borne out of sheer ‘hatred’ against the Finance Minister.
“The calls for the resignation of the Minister of Finance, Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta over the botched Sputnik Vaccine Supply deal by the elements of the National Democratic Congress is baseless and needless. The agenda of dragging the Minister of Finance into the whole discussion is clearly born out of empty hatred against the person of Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta simply because he is a cousin of President Akufo-Addo.
“The noise from the NDC elements and the call for the resignation of Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance is just an attempt to divert Ghanaians attention from the on going discussion on the Saglemi Housing Project Scandal caused by Mahama and the NDC Administration,” he said.
In corroborating his argument, Razak cited a number of scandals under the erstwhile Mahama administration where no calls were made for the dismissal of the respective Finance Ministers then.
He averred that if no such decisions were made when similar issues occurred during the NDC era then there is no basis for Ken Ofori-Atta to resign.
“He who comes to equity must come with clean hands”. I would like to ask the NDC officials and members the following equity questions:
“Did Dr. Kwabena Duffour ever resign as a Minister of Finance when he paid a whopping 51.2 million Ghana Cedis to Alfred Agbesi Woyome under the Mills/Mahama’s Government?
‘Did Seth Terkper ever resign over the $3 million cash-filled plane to Brazil during the World Cup tournament? Did Seth Terkper ever resign over the payment of 3.6million Ghana Cedis to the Smartty’s Bus branding saga?” he quizzed.
Razak Opoku also offered his defence of under-fire Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, calling for an end to the attacks on him.
Razak Opoku reasoned that Agyeman-Manu acted in the interest of the country and must not be crucified for prioritizing the lives of Ghanaians.
“However, it is also needless to attack the Health Minister more especially, considering the difficult situation the Country was going through during the peak of the COVID-19 cases. Clearly, any rational and emotionally intelligent person who cherish lives of human beings over money would do everything humanly possible to save the lives of his people at the expense of money and procurement procedures, and that is exactly what the Health Minister did as a compassionate reasonable human being who cherishes saving lives of human beings than protecting money.
“Under Section 18 of the Public Financial Management Act 2016 (Act 921) passed by Mahama’s Government, the Health Minister did no wrong in the procurement of the vaccines considering the critical situation at the time” he said.