AMERI deal: Asiedu Nketia backs calls for Akufo-Addo’s impeachment

General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Johnson Asiedu Nketiah has endorsed calls for President Akufo Addo to be impeached over his involvement in the controversial AMERI deal.

President Akufo Addo was compelled to withdraw the deal after he initially gave executive approval after huge public backlash against the agreement which did not include approvals from the Energy and Finance Ministry which ultimately culminated in the dismissal of Minister of Energy, Boakye Agyarko.

His dismissal comes after the President was allegedly misled into approving the new AMERI deal which had been rejected by Parliament through an Executive Order.

The novation and amendment agreement was seeking to buy out the deal Ameri Energy had with the government of Ghana under President John Mahama and handed over to a third party Mytilineos for 15 years. Ghana would have ended up paying over Ghc1 billion under the new arrangement.

The joint committee on Finance and Energy of Parliament rejected the new deal because it had no signatures from the Attorney General and Finance minister.

Speaking to Joy News on the matter, Johnson Asiedu Nketia stated that President Akufo Addo is complicit in the controversial deal and must be impeached.

“There’s grounds in my view for impeachment looking at the nature of our Parliament it would be difficult to get it through. But there’s no harm in trying it, at least it would be establishing a principle that the President cannot do wrong brazenly and get away with that.

“In this particular case since he decided to liken himself to a dog who’s going to be given a bad name, I think that this dog has earned a very bad name nobody needs to hang the dog, the dog must hang itself.”