Private Legal Practitioner, Victor Adawudu, has threatened to drag the Attorney General, Gloria Akuffo to court over her failure to provide more information on the controversial $ 2.2bn bond.
The Lawyer indicated that, he might sue the AG if she fails to make details on the bond available.
“If the information I have is in the public domain, then there will be no need for me to go to court to compel the AG, but if I don’t have those details I think the best place to go will be the court,” he said.
The Lawyer had earlier explained that, the information he was seeking for was aimed at addressing several concerns voiced on the bond issuance.
Speaking on the Point Blank segment of Eyewitness News, Mr. Adawudu justified his request , saying “I am am exercising a constitutional mandate which says that I have a right to information.”
Making a case for his request , Mr . Adawudu further stated that, Ghanaians deserve to know how much will be paid as interest on the said bond.
What the lawyer requested for
In a letter addressed to the Attorney General and copied to the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Adawudu, who also enclosed a processing fee of GHc 1,000, said the information he was seeking for was aimed at addressing several concerns voiced on the matter.
“I am exercising my legal and constitutional right and the Attorney General is the principal legal adviser to the government. If you look at the Right to Information Bill, it is the Minister of Justice and Attorney General who is responsible if information is wanted,” he said.
“If you look at the information I am seeking, it is a very a extensive question, and I ask that the data should also be added.”
Mr. Adawudu noted that, most of the information on the bond issue was circulating in the media, but could not necessarily be taken to be the truth, despite the “rebuttable presumption that it is authentic.”
“The information that we are getting cannot just be said to be the authentic information, that is why I am asking for the authentic information from the government.”
Background
Concerns were raised about the transparency of the $2.25 billion bond, with some suggesting that, the apparent secrecy over the deal fueled the allegations of conflict of interest against the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta.
Chief Executive Officer of Dalex Finance, Ken Thompson, remarked to Citi News that in times past, when bonds have been issued, there have been road shows, announcements or visits to Parliament “but this seems to have happened rather quickly.
The Minority in its conflict of interest allegations, said a non-executive director on the board of Investment Firm, Franklin Templeton, who purchased 95 percent of the $2.25 billion bond, is also the Chairman of the Enterprise Group, which has links to the Attorney-General and the Finance Minister.
The Minority eventually called for a full-scale parliamentary probe into the bond issue.
The Ashanti Regional Youth Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Yaw Brogya Genfi, has also petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to investigate the $ 2.25 billion bond.
But the Finance Minister through the AG’s department, has asked CHRAJ to dismiss the petition because the claims are completely false.
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