A private legal practitioner and former deputy general secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Obiri Boahen, has called for the punishment of those who were behind the failed Sky Train Project.
The lawyer noted that it is one of the cardinal sins of this government that cannot be easily forgiven.
He has therefore underscored the need for those who led the project to be prosecuted.
He has also served notice to file a Right to Information application to demand answers over the reasons why the project failed.
On the first day of the Africa Investment Forum in Johannesburg in 2019, Ghana struck an agreement with a South African business to build an above-ground train.
The train lines were to be 194 kilometres long and serve almost 400,000 people annually inside Greater Accra via five routes.
The Skytrain Project was expected to provide 5,000 employment during development.
Under the terms of the agreement, the South African concessionaire would build, own, and operate Skytrain for an undisclosed number of years at a cost of $2.6 billion.
Money for the project was to come from a consortium of South African investors, with the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund playing the fiduciary gatekeeper on behalf of the government.
The project, however, failed to materialise, and the then Minister of Railways, Mr. Joe Ghartey, in explaining why the project failed, said the project was halted by lockdowns in Ghana and South Africa at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which prevented the investors from meeting some conditions precedents for the project, including conducting a full, detailed study and costing.
Mr. Obiri Boahen believes that the $2 million invested in the failed project was a waste of state resources and caused financial loss to the state.
“If you told me the NPP administration spent $2 million on a botched Sky Train project, I’d be disappointed. It is senseless and a waste of state resources. I’d rather be a happy man, knowing that the government spent Ghc9.9 billion on free SHS, benefiting 5.1 million. It is a remarkable achievement. However, if you tell me the NPP spent $2 million on a failed Sky Train project, I will only condemn it as foolish and demand that those responsible be prosecuted. Even with the train services we have in this country, how have we managed to keep them from talking about the Sky Train Project?
We need to bring those who were behind the project to book. Governance is not a Ponzi scheme. This is something I say, and some NPP members don’t agree with me. I am a principled and honest politician, and it is not everything the NPP does that I agree with. There are some issues I don’t agree with. I repeat, those who caused us to spend $2 million on this failed project must be prosecuted. Heads must roll. A future Bawumia government must deal with this issue. Is the Special Prosecutor also not aware of this issue?. It is ridiculous that we have spent $2 million on a failed Sky Train project, and yet, those who caused it are walking around unpunished.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
