Government spokesperson Felix Kwakye Ofosu has defended President John Mahama against allegations of state capture involving businessman Ibrahim Mahama and the Damang Mine deal.<\/p>\n
Speaking on PM Express on Monday, the Abura Asebu-Kwamankese MP said the President deliberately stayed out of Cabinet discussions on the Damang mining lease because of his brother\u2019s interest in the matter.<\/p>\n
Responding to claims by the Minority that Ibrahim Mahama was influencing decisions at the Minerals Commission and positioning himself to take over the Damang mine, Kwakye Ofosu insisted the President acted ethically throughout the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the Lands and Natural Resources Minister brought the matter to Cabinet for consideration, the President recused himself. He did not sit in that meeting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Asked why the President stepped aside, Kwakye Ofosu explained that Mahama believed it was the right ethical decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe believed that it was an ethical thing to do because we did not want the situation where it would appear that he was superintending decision-making involving an entity that his brother had an interest in,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
According to him, the Vice President chaired the meeting in Mahama\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n
Kwakye Ofosu further disclosed that Cabinet rejected the idea of handing over the lease directly and instead insisted on a competitive process.<\/p>\n
\u201cCabinet insisted that a competitive process be used to select which company gets it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He argued that previous governments may simply have awarded such leases without competition, but this administration chose a different path.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs was the case in times past, government could simply have handed over to E&P without any competitive process, but Cabinet insisted that the competitive process be used,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The government spokesperson maintained that the President did not influence the outcome and remained bound by Cabinet\u2019s collective decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was not part of the decision-making and did not stampede the process,\u201d Kwakye Ofosu stressed.<\/p>\n
He also revealed that Mahama repeatedly stayed away whenever the matter resurfaced before Cabinet.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnytime that matter comes up in Cabinet, he will recuse himself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kwakye Ofosu described Cabinet discussions on the issue as intense and open, rejecting suggestions that ministers merely endorsed a predetermined outcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe debate at Cabinet that day was rigorous. People voiced their views frankly, without fear or favour,\u201d he disclosed.<\/p>\n
He added that ministers freely expressed their opinions under the Vice President’s leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no rubber-stamp decision,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kwakye Ofosu insisted all legal and parliamentary processes must still be completed before the lease is finalised.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if you say that the President handed over to his brother, that\u2019s simply untrue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He went further, declaring: \u201cThe President was the biggest stumbling block to E&P\u2019s acquisition of the Damang mine.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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Government spokesperson Felix Kwakye Ofosu has defended President John Mahama against allegations of state capture involving businessman Ibrahim Mahama and the Damang Mine deal. Speaking on PM Express on Monday, the Abura Asebu-Kwamankese MP said the President deliberately stayed out of Cabinet discussions on the Damang mining lease because of his brother\u2019s interest in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123457,"featured_media":16843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[3416,4594],"class_list":["post-16842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","tag-damang-mine","tag-kwakye-ofosu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/123457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16844,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16842\/revisions\/16844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}