Agyapa deal: Data Bank has not been paid a pesewa – Kweku Baako

Kweku Baako Jnr, the editor-in-chief of the Crusading Guide newspaper has revealed that Data Bank has not received any payment for their role as financial advisors in the Agyapa Royalty agreement.

It has been publicly held that the investment bank which is owned by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta enjoyed monetary benefit from the deal.

On Tuesday, November 10, 2020, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) demanded the government to retrieve monies it claimed had been paid to Data Bank.

The opposition party gave the government a seven-day ultimatum to recover the monies, failure of which will propel them to embark on a mammoth demonstration in the first week of December.

“The NDC, hereby, demands that President Akufo-Addo retrieves the state’s the billions of cedis his government has illegally paid under the shady ‘Agyapa’ deal to Databank, which is owned by his cousin and Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta; African Legal Associates, which is owned by another cousin of his, Gabby Otchere Darko; and their foreign compradors, within the next 7 days, failing which the NDC and other like-minded progressive forces, shall embark on series of protest and legal actions to ensure that every pesewa paid to these companies are refunded back to the State for nation-building,” Asiedu Nketia, the General Secretary of the NDC said at a presser.

In a reaction to the NDC’s demands, Kweku Baako said that information available to him indicates that Data Bank received no monies for their role in the deal.

“They made some demands that the president should ensure that some monies paid are retrieved. I have been told on authority that Data Bank as we sit here has not been paid a pesewa or dollar. But some payments have been done for Africa Legal Associates and the others,” Baako disclosed on Peace FM.

But in a post on Facebook, Gabby Otchere Darko, a leading member of the ruling party said that Data Bank would have been given a certain amount of money had the deal been successful.

“You are calling on your supporters and Ghanaians to join you on the street to stage a massive demonstration to ask for a refund for fees paid to transaction advisors, including law firms for services rendered per a contract? (Note: Databank has received no money for work done so far. Databank was only to earn success fee at the end of the transaction). That is why, with tongue in cheek, I wish to proclaim: I love the NDC! Fantastic bunch of patriots! Bless them!, part of the statement reads.