Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, Health Minister
Former Member of Parliament for Akwatia Ahmed Mohammed Baba Jamal, has charged that the Minister of Health Kwaku Agyeman-Manu must be made to face the rigors of the law for his blatant disregard for the laid procedures in the acquisition of overpriced Sputnik V vaccines through an Emirati middleman.
He insisted that even before he is made to go through the gauntlet of the law, the government must boldly come out to apologize to Ghanaians for the lack of respect and due diligence exhibited in the acquisition of the Russian vaccines.
The former lawmaker said the excuse that the ruling NPP government is trying to shove on Ghanaians that the country is facing a pandemic so the actions of the Health Minister in the botched deal should be pardoned cannot hold water at all.
Mr Jamal said the lawmakers in the country’s legislature anticipated that there could be emergencies and thus have provided procedures on how situations like the pandemic should be handled in the country.
He said the Health Minister had no justification to bypass parliament and its laid down procedures in procuring the Sputnik V vaccines.
Mr Jamal said the excuse that the Health Minister feared losing out on the deal if he didn’t act promptly is not a valid point at all since he had been able to contact the middlemen and they had flown into the country, hence an experienced person like Kwaku Agyeman-Manu should have known he had to go through the law before ratifying the deal.
He pointed out that the Health Minister himself is a Member of Parliament and was the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of the august house hence he cannot tell the country that he didn’t know what he was doing in procuring the vaccines to save lives in the country.
Mr Jamal made this pronouncement in an interview with Berla Mundi on the New Day show on TV3, Thursday, August 12.
He was speaking on the back of the botched Sputnik V procurement deal between Ghana and an Emirati middleman Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, facilitated by the Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman-Manu and the recent jest by President Akufo-Addo that the minister is the most “vilified minister” in his government.
“I am saying that he must be taken through the law, he must be made to face the law. But I’m saying that for now, even before he goes through that process somebody must be telling us that ‘I’m sorry’ for what has happened”, Baba Jamal charged on the New Day show.