The National Democratic Congress’s (NDC) communications officer, Sammy Gyamfi, has advised the general public to disregard the alleged ruling of the ECOWAS court over the Agyapa deal because it is illegal.
He argues that the court’s verdict was based on whether or not the government had violated the African Charter on Human Rights rather than the actual concerns of the NDC.
Speaking in an interview on Metro TV, monitored by 1Family Radio, Sammy Gyamfi claimed that Gabby-Darko’s Databank was paid money as part of the agreement for its advisory role and that this is what the NDC was concerned about, along with procurement violations and fund payments.
“The Agyapa deal is illegal; those payments should be refunded to the state because Gabby’s African Legal Associates and Databank had been paid transaction advisor fees under the illegal contracts.’’
He furthered, “The deal was illegal because, according to the office of the special prosecutor, which investigated this matter, the deal violated Articles 1(8) and 1(5) of the 1992 Constitution and the Public Procurement Law.’’
“These issues were not interrogated by the Community Court of ECOWAs because they were not before them. And even if the issues were presented to them, they could not have gone into them because they lacked jurisdiction.’’
“The issue has never been a human rights matter. And so please stop this mischievous attempt to claim glory, creating the impression that the Community Court has certified and endorsed the Agyapa deal when that is not the case,’’ he noted.
“The ECOWAS Court of Justice was only called upon to determine whether the deal and the conduct of the government related to the deal violated a certain provision of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.’’
“That is what they determined and said—no, it doesn’t violate this provision. They did not go into issues of procurement breaches, breaches of articles 1(8), 1(5), and so on and so forth,’’ he added.
Source: 1Familyradio