President John Mahama did not ferry 1.5 tonnes of Ghana’s gold to Tehran
as payment for an alleged unknown financial commitment to the
Government of Iran, the West African country’s National Security Council
has said.
At a press briefing on the matter on Friday, an official of the
Council, Mr Marcus Awelinga said investigators found no gold in any of
the 30 boxes which allegedly contained the gold.
He said investigators rather found that the boxes contained substances
whose chemical components comprised 0.468 per cent of zinc, 1.24 per
cent of tin, 0.310 per cent of iron, 0.101 per cent of silicon, 0.644
per cent of copper, 0.031 per cent of aluminium, 0.25 per cent of gold
and 96.13 per cent of nickel.
The NSC, according to Awelinga said the aircraft which ferried the
alleged tonnes of gold took off from the Kotoka International Airport
(KIA) at 10.20 p.m. on December 31, 2012.
He said checks conducted showed that the consignment was supplied by
Omanye Gold Mining Limited (OGML) – an obscure registered company which
could not be located - and not President Mahama.
Mr Awelinga said the Director of OGML, Mr Peter Kofi Bedzra, now
deceased, admitted supplying “gold bars” and that they were loaded from
the KIA.
He told Journalists that the consignment of the alleged gold
consignment had been ferried back to Ghana from Dubai and was now in the
custody of Aviance, awaiting clearance by OGML.
OGML, according to Aweling, had, however, sent a petition to court, claiming it was gold that it exported.
He added that OGML’s claims are being investigated.
National Security began the investigations following media allegations
that started on December 31, 2012, that The President was involved in
the alleged gold haulage.
The story surfaced following the detention of the consignment in Turkey
when the flight crew failed to produce a valid airway bill on it.
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