By William
Yaw Owusu
Tuesday,
November 14, 2017
The Norwegian newspaper that is tailing former
President John Dramani Mahama over his supposed links with Africa Middle East
Resources Investment Group LLC (AMERI) has indicated that the African
Development Bank (AfDB) did not send Mr Mahama to Namibia as claimed by him.
According to the award-winning newspaper called VG, Mr. Mahama had visited Namibian President
Hage Geingob in Windhoek and presented himself as an AfDB advocate for African
energy self-sufficiency, but its investigation turned out that the continental
bank does not have any hand in the former president’s visit where he took AMERI
to the Southern African country.
The latest report was filed on VG’s website: www.vg.no by the newspaper's
journalists - ROLF J. WIDERØE, AMUND BAKKE FOSS and SYNNØVE ÅSEBØ - on Sunday,
November 12 at 20 hours GMT and updated yesterday at 12:19 pm.
Initial
Response
According to VG
- which has been investigating the AMERI/Mahama link over the past two
years - it obtained information from AfDB’s office in Tunis, the Tunisian
capital, indicating that the bank didn’t sanction Ghana’s ex-president’s visit
to the Southern African country.
“For some time VG
has been seeking to clarify Mahama’s role in the African Development Bank,
as well as the bank’s role in Mahama’s Namibiam visit,” the private newspaper
reported.
“At first Chawki Chahed, a communication officer at
the bank, replied that Mahama had been named a ‘goodwill ambassador’ by the
bank. But in a follow-up inquiry, when VG
provided new information on Mahama’s unusual collaboration, the development
bank backed away, claiming it had nothing to do with Mahama’s visit at all,”
the newspaper said.
Further
Probe
The paper stated, “This time it was the bank’s
director of communication and external relations, Victor Oladokun, who replied.”
VG:
What is the bank’s comment on these findings about Mr John Mahama ?
AfDB:
Former President John Mahama does not represent the Bank, neither is the Bank
involved in his business dealings. Once again, we categorically state that the
African Development Bank has no knowledge of nor is it engaged in any
transactions involving the parties you have indicated. None of the said
transactions have been done in the name of the Bank.
VG:
Why does the African Development Bank allow Mr Mahama – in his capacity as the
bank’s goodwill ambassador – to work for such a company as AMERI Group/the
private office of Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum?
Goodwill
Ambassador
AfDB:
The Bank does not have an official position or ‘Goodwill Ambassador’ title.
Rather, we encourage leaders to use their goodwill to speak up for Africa’s
accelerated development, whenever they have opportunities to do so. The African
Development Bank does not know of and neither does it work with nor have any
relationship with the group mentioned in your correspondence.
The newspaper had published on Saturday, “According
to the Namibian authorities, it was Mahama who initiated the meeting and
brought the two men from the controversial Dubai company to Namibia.”
VG:
Can you guarantee that this is not corruption?
Oladokun
(AfDB): The Bank has zero tolerance for
corruption. Like all multilateral finance institutions, the African Development
Bank takes a very strict stand on corruption at any and all levels. Through an
integrity and anti-corruption department, the Bank imposes stiff penalties that
debar any company engaged in corrupt practices from participating in any work
with the Bank,”
Door
Opener
According to the paper, “When former Ghanaian
President John Mahama collaborated with the controversial AMERI Group in
Namibia, he used the African Development Bank as a door opener. The influential
bank now says it had nothing to do with the visit.
“John Mahama presented himself as a representative
of the development bank when he travelled to Namibia with a tempting offer in
July. The aim of the visit, he claimed, was to help companies from Dubai to
gain a foothold in Namibia’s energy sector.
“The former president asserted that the African
Development Bank had identified Namibia as one of five countries that could
produce energy and export it to other African countries in the future,”
On Saturday, VG
reported that the former president of Ghana had brought to the meeting in
Namibia two men from a highly controversial company, the private office of
Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum.
This company owns AMERI Group. Umar Farooq Zahoor,
an Oslo man, accused of fraud, plays a key role in the company.
In 2015 AMERI Group signed a $520 million massive
energy contract in Ghana while Mahama was president.
The contract has caused a political row in Ghana and
has been described as fraudulent by a government-appointed committee because of
overpricing to the tune of $150 million going to wrong hands.
The newspaper reported, “Neither Mr. Mahama nor AMERI
Group has replied to VG's request for interviews about this topic.”
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