The embattled minister of finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, was reportedly annoyed by an attempt to give him money as a gift from some alleged investors who were actually members of Anas Aremeyaw Anas’s undercover investigative journalism team.
The Tiger Eye P.I. investigators, according to a report seen by GhanaWeb, pretended to be investors who wanted to invest in Ghana and needed to meet the Finance Minister to explore opportunities and other aspects of establishing up in Ghana.
The report states that the investigators previously met with Charles Adu Boahen, Ofori-deputy, Atta’s in a hotel suite in the United Arab Emirates, UAE, back in 2018. There, the now-fired Adu Boahen was paid money in exchange for facilitating access for the investors to people like Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, who allegedly accepted a US$200,000 “appearance fee” to meet investors.
Following their discussion with them, they went on to briefly meet Ofori-Atta in the Dubai airport as he was travelling to Tokyo for work.
According to the report, the minister was irate because neither he nor his PA received the financial gift from the Tiger Eye P.I. team.
“Tiger Eye P.I. was unsatisfied with the encounter with Charles Adu Boahen and wanted to catch the bigger fish, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.
They believed they had their opportunity when, after numerous tries, Mr. Ofori-Atta agreed to meet them at the airport in Dubai while travelling to Tokyo, Japan, according to an Asaase radio report.
“On April 5, 2018, at around 6:30 am, Mr. Ofori-Atta met the alleged investors (investigators) in the Dubai terminal hotel (Dubai International Airport) with the assistance of his then Personal Assistant (PA), Michael Bediako.
“It was disclosed to Mr. Ofori-Atta that the meeting would be with the chairman of the Al Baraka Islamic Bank of Bahrain, who had expressed interest in investing $500 million to establish a “ethical” bank in Ghana.
“Our checks indicate that the meeting lasted about five minutes.
When Ken Ofori-Atta was offered a “present,” which he declined, he became very irate and marched out with his PA. His PA had also been offered a gift, which she also rejected “said the report.
Ameyaw Anas Charles Adu Boahen, the ousted Minister of State of the Finance Ministry due to an alleged corruption issue, was exposed in Anas’ most recent “Galamsey Economy” article.
The minister made some stunning discoveries to Anas’ team in a hotel in the UAE, when they pretended to be potential investors in Ghana, according to a post he posted on his Facebook timeline a few hours before the screening of the “Galamsey Economy” movie.
Adu Boahen said, among other things, that Bawumia would need to pay an investor around USD200,000 as an appearance fee in order to get his support and influence in starting a firm in Ghana.
“You mean, like, appearance costs and things like that?” The investigators inquired, and Adu Boahen answered: “I’m talking about the Vice President himself; if you want to offer him a symbol of your gratitude or something like (USD) 200,000, that’s great. He isn’t actually (like that), he isn’t really. He just needs to be concerned with his 2020 campaign finances.”
However, Dr. Bawumia refuted the charges and demanded a probe into them in a statement on Monday, November 14.
