SML deal is bad; it is dirty – Former NPP Communication Director

Yaw Buaben Asamoa has criticized President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for the revenue assurance contract between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Ltd (SML), and the sale of shares of six SSNIT hotels to the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Bryan Acheampong.

In an interview with JoyNews on Thursday, May 23, 2024, Buaben Asamoa, former Director of Communication of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), described the two deals by the government as immoral and filthy.

Buaben Asamoa, who is also the lawyer for Hopeson Adorye, a leading member of the Movement for Change and former NPP member recently arrested for comments about using dynamite to intimidate non-Ghanaians from voting in the Volta Region during the 2016 election, accused the government of using the prosecution of his client to divert the attention of Ghanaians from the SML and SSNIT scandals.

“What is happening with the SSNIT divestitures, what is happening with the publication of the full SML report are things that the government wants to really run away from. And the belief is that this would divert public attention. It is what we call the dead cat in journalism.

“It (the prosecution of Adorye) is a diversion. It is going down; it is dirty, the SML deal is dirty, the SML report is bad, it is dirty. The SSNIT situation is bad, it is dirty,” he said.

The lawyer added, “But the government wants to move away from these issues with sensationalism. Arrest Hopeson Adorye, everybody is talking about it; everybody would have forgotten the dirt in the SML, the dirt in SSNIT, and then the government is comfortable, Mr Adorye is left to go. Because the charges are hollow, they can’t put him anywhere.”