Deputy Minister of Power under the erstwhile John Mahama administration, John Jinapor had his residence searched by some personnel from the Ghana Police Service as part of the investigations into the AMERI deal.
John Jinapor who is currently Member of Parliament for Yapei Kusawgu revealed he was about leaving for Parliament Friday morning when 3 security personnel showed up at his residence and held him hostage for about two hours.
The former Deputy Minister of Power narrated that the security personnel had a search warrant to look for documents related to the AMERI contract. Mr. Jinapor also revealed that two of the policemen were armed with AK 47 assault rifles which frightened his children a great deal.
At the end of the day, the search team went away with his iPhone.
Recall that in a similar incident, personnel from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service stormed the house of one-time Minister of Power, Dr. Kwabena Donkor on Monday, 24th July.
The CID personnel who had a search warrant from the court, came with no other motive than to seek and retrieve documents implicating the former minister in the controversial AMERI contract.
Dr. Donkor had his laptops and pen drives seized by the search team. They would have also collected his phones if not for the former minister’s resistance. Meanwhile, Kwabena Donkor has declared his innocence in the Ameri issue, stating that he is ready to meet his accusers in court.
A former Technical Advisor on the power deal, Francis Dzata has also had his house raided over the same matter.
The Ameri Power Deal is a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) agreement signed between Ghana and UAE-based energy company, AMERI in the heat of the 2015 crippling energy crisis under the John Mahama administration.
The deal which stood at a whopping cost of $510m specifically involves the installation of 10 General Electric TM 2500 aero-derivative gas turbines at the Aboadze Power enclave, near Takoradi in the Western Region. Click here to get full details of the Ameri energy contract.
Member of Parliament for Adansi Asokwa and former Deputy Minister of Energy, Kobina Tahir Hammond, on Tuesday July 25th, filed an urgent motion in Parliament for the Ameri deal to be rescinded.
Speaking to Daily Guide on the issue, Mr. Hammond stated that he has ample evidences with which to prove that there were “gross misrepresentations” in the deal, hence the need for it to be revoked.
NPP officials are from the onset not happy with the Ameri deal, particularly on the allegation that it was overpriced.
The Akufo-Addo government on assuming office promised to look into the matter to decide if the contract would be reviewed or abrogated. Their investigations have since moved from the activities of the Philip Addison-led committee, down to the ongoing house raids.
And from the way things are going, it appears the Ameri deal has been “criminalized”, with all participants in the agreement now regarded as suspects.
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