Ibrahim Mahama grabs juicy deal

• Posted on June 30, 2017
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

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 29^th 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.”

By William Yaw Owusu