$2 billion bond petition: Minority will be embarrassed – Kweku Baako predicts

The Minority’s petition to the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) over the $2.25 billion bond will go nowhere, said Kweku Baako, the managing editor of the New Crusading Guide Newspaper.

He said the minority will be embarrassed after the US SEC concludes its investigation into the matter because no wrong was committed by the Finance Minister in the bond issuance.

“There will be nothing in there for them. They will be embarrassed. I have said somewhere that they are only seeking to internationalise their incompetence, ineptitude and embarrassment. And that will come to the pass,” he said on Newsfile Saturday.

“There is nothing absolutely illegal, constitutional or improper about this transaction and there is enough evidence to show that what has happened with this $2.25 billion bond is what has been happening since 2015.”
According to him, the position of the Minority amounts to embarking on a “fishing expedition,” warning that “they will make no catch. They will go to sea and come back empty handed. The net will be empty.”
He stressed that the bond was issued in a transparent manner and that there was no potential conflict of interest.

Mr Baako said Franklin Templeton, the majority shareholder of the $2.25 billion bond, had from 2015 purchased government bonds, wondering why the issue of conflict of interest is being raised because Ken Ofori Atta, who has a relationship with one of the directors of Franklin Templeton, is the Finance Minister.

The Minority early this week petitioned the US Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate Franklin Templeton over its conduct in the purchase of the $2.25 billion issued by the Akufo-Addo administration.

A member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Ashanti Region, Brogya Gyamfi, has also petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice to look into the matter while another group affiliated to the NDC has also petitioned the Ghana Security and Exchange Commission over the same matter.