The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice will on July 13, 2022, deliver judgment in the case in which three non governmental organisations sued the government of Ghana over the controversial Agyapa deal.
Transparency International, Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) and Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) sued the government of Ghana at the ECOWAS Court and asked it to compel the government of Ghana to give clarity to the deal in which the government wanted to explore the country’s gold reserve.
On March 23, a three-member panel of the court presided over by Justice Edward Amoako Asante, who doubles as a Court of Appeal Judge in Ghana, fined the government of Ghana $750.00 for failing to file response to the suit against it.
The Attorney-General, represented by Chief State Attorney, Dorothy Afriyie Ansah, asked for time to file the response and the court obliged.
Appearing before the three-member panel on Thursday, Ms Ansah asked the Court to dismiss the case against Ghana as it was frivolous, a waste of time and unmeritorious.
She said the Agyapa deal was meant to explore the gold reserve for development purposes.
Former Special Prosecutor, Mr Alamisi Burns Kaizer Amidu, raised issues of alleged corruption in his risk assessment of the deal in 2020.
It was on the basis of his findings that the three Anti-Corruption organisations initiated legal action against the government of Ghana.
The plaintiffs said that the Agyapa deal was susceptible to corruption, dominated by “politically exposed persons” and also violates the rights of Ghanaians to have permanent sovereignty over the country’s natural resources as provided under the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.
They asked the Court to order Ghana to suspend the Agyapa deal and engage in proper consultation with Ghanaians in order to come up with a deal, which they say, will be in the public interest.
Also, the applicants want the court to order Ghana to investigate all alleged acts of corruption associated with the deal, “and ensure that any alleged perpetrators are brought to justice,” and also engage in proper consultations.
Their counsel, Olumide Babalola, said the Agyapa deal, in its current form, was not in the best interest of Ghanaians as it would lead to the dissipation of the country’s gold resources.
According to him, the corruption risk assessment by Mr Amidu was a clear indication that the deal was tainted with corruption and would destroy the rights of Ghanaians over their natural resources.
The ECOWAS Court session was launched in Accra at the Court Complex on Monday by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
It would conduct proceedings for 11 days from March 21-April 1, during which it would hear 60 cases and deliver judgement.
This was the first time the ECOWAS Court was conducting proceedings in Ghana since it was established in 2007.
The Court has delivered a number judgement but there had been concerns about member states refusal to abide by the decisions of the Court and in some cases member states who enforced the judgement and rulings of the Court did so at their own convenience.
President Akufo-Addo in his speech on Monday lamented that only 13 per cent of the Court’s decision were enforced by member states and appealed to governments within the ECOWAS sub-region to desist from selective enforcement of the Court’s decisions.
BY MALIK SULLEMANA
