Ben Boakye, Executive Director of the Africa Center for Energy Policy (ACEP), has appealed to the Attorney General, Godfred Dame, to take immediate action in court to halt the pursuit of the $915 million claim by ENI Ghana and Vitol.
Boakye’s urgent call to the Attorney General seeks to prevent further legal ramifications and potential financial losses for the state.
Ben Boakye warns that if Godfred Dame, does not intervene effectively, ENI Ghana and Vitol are likely to succeed in their $915 million claim against the state in the local courts. He urges prompt action to prevent a potentially costly outcome for Ghana.
In an interview with Bernard Avle on The Point of View on Channel One TV, Ben Boakye expressed concern that if Springfield continues to pursue the court case locally, it may trigger the consequences outlined in the arbitral award, potentially leading to severe repercussions for Ghana.
He emphasises the need for the Attorney General to take proactive steps to communicate effectively with the court and prevent such an outcome.
“What we need to do is to make sure that the unitisation is right, it’s justifiable and Ghana benefits from it. So, I’m hoping that we will do that, but, most importantly also, there are processes in court in Ghana that the Attorney General would have to intervene so that the $915 million claim doesn’t get activated. Because the more it drags and Springfields holds onto that to win cases in a local court, that could trigger the consequences as have been laid out in the arbitral award.
“So, those are the things that if the Attorney General is minded, he will be focused on to ensure that those things could be addressed. They put out the directive based on which the court has been making some ruling, they have to communicate appropriately to the court.
“That the directive they issued had been struck out by an international court of arbitration and therefore they no longer hold for those decisions to be reversed,” he said.
He lamented that the managers of ENI Ghana and Vitol have been forced to flee the country to avoid arrest, following a contempt of court ruling against them.
“The sad reality is that, while this thing was in court, the managers of the OCTP, Vitol, ENI managers, they all couldn’t stay in Ghana, because the courts were making contemptuous rulings against them.
“And they feared arrests by staying in Ghana. So, they were operating Ghana, like we’re having a zoom call, remotely. And this is the time to really bring that confidence to get people comfortable staying in Ghana without any fear of local arrests,” he said.
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