The former Minister for Power, Kwabena Donkor, had his home subjected to a thorough search by some personnel from the Criminal Investigations Department of the Police on Monday morning.
The personnel were on a mission to retrieve evidence that suggests the former minister had caused financial loss to the state as a result of his involvement in the controversial AMERI deal.
Kwabena Donkor, who confirmed the incident to Citi News, said the personnel arrived at his home few minutes after 6:00am today [Monday].
“It was few minutes after 6…. There were 4 of them led by an Assistant Superintended of Police. They showed me a warrant obtained from a circuit court and said I was a suspect for having caused financial loss to the state and so they should come and search my premises, retrieve my laptop and other electronic devices.”
“The officers were very professional and they were here for about 2 hours… I said I have nothing to hide so they should go ahead. They searched the whole house. They took away my laptop and some pen drives,” Kwabena Donkor said.
He expressed shock that he had not been notified prior to the Monday morning search that he was a suspect in any criminal case.
“I read for the first time on the warrant that I was the suspect for causing financial loss. Nobody has cautioned me, nobody has tried me. I’ve never been told anywhere that I’ve caused financial loss. The officers said they were looking for documentations on AMERI so they were very specific,” he said.
The John Mahama administration in 2015, agreed to rent the 300MW of emergency power from AMERI at the peak of the country’s power crisis. The decision was taken when Mr. Donkor was Power Minister.
The cost of the deal was $510m, and received parliamentary approval on 20th March, 2015. However, it emerged that the country had been shortchanged by the company, acccording to the NPP government.
The reports said the government had paid in excess of $150m, but state officials of the Mahama government disagreed.
The New Patriotic Party government which assumed office said it would look into the matter.
The Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko, later constituted a committee led by lawyer Philip Addison to investigate the matter that ended in controversy, as it emerged that the committee had seemingly entangled itself in a possible conflict of interest position by accepting sponsorship from AMERI to travel and stay in Dubai for some days as it investigated them [AMERI].
Investigations are still ongoing.
