STATEMENT: The Gold Scandal�Gov�t Is Covering Up

A National Security Coordinator who operates on gut feeling is not only incompetent and irresponsible but is a walking smoking gun. Since the breaking of the gold scandal news by Young Patriots over a month ago, government has given several contradicting statements on the issue. Recent happenings however makes us suspect there is a grand scheme to cover up the real deal behind the haulage. Government ministers and agencies have used institutions such as the military to portray that the deal is the figment of our imagination including documentations signed by military bosses on aviation authority letter heads. The denial of the existence of flight details of the said cargo arriving and departing from the Kotoka International Airport is nothing short of a conspiracy on the part of government to cover up a deal gone bad. This denial is contradicted by a statement government issued on details of the arrest of two persons believed to be from Omanye Gold Mining Company Ltd which states "A ULS cargo aircraft (Airbus 300-B4) arrived at the Kotoka International Airport from Tripoli, Libya and filed a Landing Clearance Request form in which they indicated that they were to lift gold bars as their cargo." We are however alarmed that the National Security Coordinator, Col Larry Gbevlo Lartey, noted for his radio propaganda has waded into the saga. His continuous attempts behind the scenes to cover up the story and his subsequent pronouncements will not wash with us. The people of Ghana want and deserve full disclosure on this matter. Since the National Security Coordinator has operated on his gut feelings to conclude on an unfolding saga, we are putting it to him that a scam is a crime and therefore warrants further investigations. The following questions need urgent answers. 1. Who are the Directors of the mining company Omanye Gold Company Ltd? 2. Why have the Minerals Commission and Kotoka International Airport been forced into denying the existence of the deal to conform to the government position? 3. Why were officers of the Geological Survey Department arrested after it came to light that the department granted Omanye Gold Company Ltd the license to export the said gold? 4. Last, but not least, why did the Presidency deny that no seizure of gold took place in Turkey in the first place? We are demanding an independent investigative body to be set up to investigate first and foremost, the National security apparatus and their possible role in the saga. The possible role of government and the NDC party in the formation of the Omanye Gold Company Ltd and the subsequent export of the said gold should also be investigated. Anything short of an independent investigation into this matter is an attempt by the government to cover up deal because of the role and interest it has in it. SIGNED Richard Nyamah Fred Amankwah-Sarfo Hopeson Adorye