FRAUD! Ada Songhor salt project criminally sold to McDan for peanuts

Investigations have uncovered another very clever scheme cooked in the NPP government’s corruption pot which has resulted in the Ada Songhor Salt Project being sold for peanuts.

The Daily Post reports that this corruption dish involves three men; the then Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Kwaku Ansomah-Cheremeh, the Executive Director of the State Interest and Governance Authority (SIGA), Stephen Asamoah Boateng, alias Asabee and Daniel McKorley, alias MacDan, Executive Chairman of Electrochem Ghana Limited.

In this fraudulent deal, MacDan and his company ended up paying a paltry GHc 2.34 million instead of GHc23. 4 million for the Ada Songhor Salt Project. Fraudulently, while the offer letter signed by Asabee to MacDan is dated 8th February 2021, a ‘Restricted Mining Lease Agreement’ dated 29th October 2020 gave MacDan the right to enter the project site to dig for, win, mine and produce salt for fifteen years. This simply means that the offer letter by Asabee to MacDan was to throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians because MacDan had long been given the right to the site to mine and sell salt which he was already doing.

Former National Coordinator of School Feeding Programme, Gertrude Quashigah dead
The offer letter written by Asabee is not only fraudulent because it attempts to hide the fact that MacDan was already illegally on site, digging for, wining, mining and producing salt without paying a cedi but also positions him to pay peanuts for the project. It is no wonder that up to date, he has paid only GHc2.34 million for the Salt Project, a paltry 10% of the total amount he is to pay.

In the offer letter, MacDan was to pay SIGA GH¢2.34 million within 21 days after receiving the letter, GH¢5 million as a second instalment within 90 days after receiving the offer letter after which he would be given the right of entry into the site, GHc¢6 million as third instalment after which the Sales and Purchase Agreement (SPA) will be signed and finally, the fourth and final instalment of GH¢10.06 million within 36 months after the SPA has been executed. That will bring the total he has to pay to GH¢23.4 million. However, three to four years on, MacDan has paid only GH¢2.34 million, leaving GH¢21.06 unpaid and he is mining salt from the site and raking in profit!

Also read Geological Survey Authority defends relocation of BoG Head Office over earthquake concerns
The Ada Songhor Salt project, which he is milking dry without paying what is due the state is made up of the following;

*Land covering 12,428 acres

*Buildings and warehouses

*existing lakes

*ponds

*crystallizing pans

*equipment

*motor vehicles and mining machines

*evaporators

*pumps

All three persons involved in this criminal scam, Kwaku Ansomah-Cheremeh, Stephen Asamoah Boateng and Daniel McKorley, alias MacDan have questions to answer someday. Ghanaians will want to know why MacDan was given the right to enter the Salt project site in Ada in October 2020 when he had not even been given an offer letter.

Secondly, Ghanaians will like to know why an offer letter was given to him in February 2021 as if he was yet to enter the site whereas he was already on the project site, mining and producing salt and selling it for profit.

Thirdly, Ghanaians will like to know why the terms of the offer are such that MacDan, if he is minded to pay the full amount to buy the project, can do so with profit from the salt mining which he has bot paid for.