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Communications Minister, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah has chided the opposition NPP for resisting the sale of Merchant Bank to Fortiz Equity Fund. According to him, the New Patriotic Party has no sufficient basis to mount the strident opposition it has staged against the deal. "The NPP has just decided to throw mud, they have become permit my saying, rebels without cause," he said. The campaign against the acquisition of the state-owned bank, Merchant Bank, by Fortiz Equity Fund, has been gaining momentum. At a news conference Thursday, the Minority in Parliament led by MP for New Juabeng South, Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah, said the deal was simply a fraudulent attempt by government to short-change Ghanaians. He said there was lack of due diligence in the acquisition and wondered why a comparatively better offer by South African company, First Rand, was rejected by majority shareholder of Merchant Bank, the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT). First Rand offered to pay 176.4 million Ghana cedis for 75 percent of SSNIT's shares in Merchant Bank but the offer was rejected. FORTIZ, is, however, buying 90 per cent stake in the bank for 90 million Ghana cedis. Mr. Dr. Assibey Yeboah the deal was a "scam". The opposition party says SSNIT and the Bank of Ghana which approved the deal must offer further explanation regarding the sale. But speaking on Joy FM and MultiTV's news analysis programme, Newsfile, Saturday, Dr. Omane Boamah, said the opposition party is simply politicising the sale because President John Mahama's brother, Ibrahim Mahama, is linked to the high debt portfolio of Merchant Bank which has occasioned its sale. He argued the deal is genuine because international auditing firm KPMG acted as the transaction advisor to SSNIT. "KPMG is a very credible institution," he said. He said "a more responsible" action the NPP could have taken, would have been to summon the Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper, to answer questions concerning the deal. "If it is information you are seeking, why don't you say so," he quizzed. He expressed confidence in the deal and suggested the NPP was no match for the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) as far as prudent management of the country is concerned. "If it is about project for project, programme for programme, policy for policy, there is no way they can beat the NDC in 2016," he boasted.