Exoneration of Parties implicated in BOST fuel saga troubling - Nyaho Tamakloe

Speaking to the Daily Graphic on the matter, he said, “Ghanaians are smart and know corruption when they see it, and it is for the Akufo-Addo administration to prove Ghanaians wrong, especially when rumours are rife that some of the implicated persons are close to the President.”

Background

Investigations jointly conducted by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) on the sale of contaminated fuel by BOST have exonerated the Managing Director (MD) of BOST, Mr Alfred Obeng Boateng, from any wrongdoing.

“It is not the case that the MD of BOST owns the company that bought the product. It is not true that the address or phone number of Movenpina is the same as that of the BOST MD.

“The investigations so far carried out by the state security agencies and the NPA show that on the basis of previous practice, there was no wrongdoing at BOST on the sale of the five million litres of contaminated product,” the Minister of Energy, Mr Boakye Agyarko, said at a press conference in Accra last Tuesday.

“Further to our intention to set up a ministerial committee on this matter, the ongoing investigations by the BNI and the NPA have so far established the following findings, which have informed our understanding and  assessment of the situation:

“The contamination of the five million litres occurred on January 18. This was before the current BOST MD assumed office.

“BOST, as a matter of practice, has sold contaminated products as far back as 2014. Over eight million litres of contaminated fuel was sold in 2015 and over 12 million litres sold in 2016. The five million litres sold is less (in quantity) than that for 2015 and 2016,” Mr Agyarko further said.

The minister said the absence of refining capacity at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) precluded the possibility of saving the contaminated product through a refining process.

Respect for due process

However, in the view of Dr Tamakloe, it is even more troubling because it adds to incidents that have fuelled the perception that the Akufo-Addo administration has no respect for due process.

“As we speak, the persons captured on video assaulting a senior police officer at the Flagstaff House have never been brought to book. Party vigilantes who have physically invaded courts or assaulted state officials have gone scot free. The President condemns these incidents in public but himself does nothing to ensure compliance with his own orders,” he recalled.

All of these events, in the opinion of Dr Tamakloe, were seriously undermining President Akufo-Addo's credentials as a defender of the rule of law.

“This is not the Akufo-Addo with whom many of us stood shoulder to shoulder against tyranny and impunity, even at the risk of our lives,” he concluded.

Dr Tamakloe said President Akufo-Addo was also risking the integrity of the NPP, which is the standard bearer of the rule of law in Ghana.