Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw
Owusu
Friday, June 30,
2017
The deposed National Democratic Congress (NDC) government has been
accused of virtually ceding the country’s bauxite deposits to Ibrahim Mahama, younger
brother of former President John Dramani Mahama.
Gideon Boako, an Economic Advisor at the Office of Vice President
Mahamudu Bawumia, made the astonishing allegation to the effect that 58% of
Ghana’s bauxite reserves was sold to Ibrahim Mahama before his brother’s
administration exited power in January this
year.
The transaction between the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress
(NDC) government and Exton Cubic Group Limited - a company located at No 137
Densu Road, Airport Residential Area in Accra - believed to have links with
Ibrahim Mahama, was concluded on December 29, 2016, when his brother’s NDC had
been humiliated by then opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the December 7
elections - and was on its way out of office.
Dr Gideon Boako blew the cover on Citi
FM on Wednesday when he said it was Ibrahim’s company that was given the
huge concession.
He was reacting to a statement by Inusa Fuseini, a former Lands,
Forestry and Natural Resources Minister, that the bauxite rich Atiwa area
cannot be mined because it is under UN control.
“I want to ask the former minister
which part of the concession did they sell to the brother of the former president?
They sold 58 percent on 29th December, 2016 when they were leaving
office. The NDC government sold 58 percent of our bauxite concession to the
former president’s brother. The one they sold to him, was it possible to mine
or not? They should stop this argument,” Mr Boako fumed.
In the mining lease agreement, Nii Osah Mills, then Minister of Lands
and Natural Resources, represented the government in the deal with Exton Cubic
Group Limited. Nii Osah Mills confirmed yesterday that the Mahama regime signed
off the bauxite deal to Ibrahim’s company.
Documents cited by DAILY GUIDE showed that there are
two concessions involved and all were signed on the same date when the NDC was
packing itself from government.
The first document shows that the (NDC) government gave the bauxite
mining lease to Exton Cubic Group Limited for 22 years and in the other lease
for the same mineral resource, the company was given 18 years’ lease.
It is unclear the location of the concessions, but DAILY
GUIDE understands they are all in the area bordering Central and Western
Regions and possibly Eastern Region.
Dr. Boako had reacted to the NDC minority in parliament who were
raising concerns that the NPP government was mortgaging Ghana’s future with $15
billion Chinese loan following last week’s high-powered delegation led by Dr.
Bawumia to China.
According to him, the NDC has no business cautioning the NPP
administration against leveraging Ghana’s natural resources - specifically
bauxite - through its recent partnership with China, since they (NDC) sold 58
percent of Ghana’s bauxite concession to Ibrahim Mahama.
Dr. Boako said the NPP government, with the assistance of the Minerals
Commission, would not flout the rules as far as mining of bauxite is concerned.
“We are in government. We know the concession that is viable and ready
to be mined and we will go for that. If there is an area that we are not
supposed to mine, we will not flout that rule,” he said, adding, “The Minerals
Commission knows all the concessions in Ghana that have bauxite so if clearly
there is a particular concession that is not possible to mine, the Minerals
Commission will make that available to government and we will not be the first
government to overstep the laws of the country to do something that is illegal.
“As far as we are concerned, we are talking about bauxite deposits at
Kyebi… and the understanding we have from the Minerals Commission is that all
of them are possible to mine.”
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