The Minority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has dismissed as false and defamatory a wave of personal attacks he says have been directed at him over the past week, insisting they are a deliberate attempt to divert attention from questions he has raised about losses recorded under the Bank of Ghana’s Domestic Gold Purchase Programme.
In a statement issued in Accra, Mr Afenyo-Markin said the allegations concerning his motives for scrutinising the programme, and the role played by the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) in the related transactions, were “entirely false,” and he rejected them “without qualification.”
He said his conduct in the matter had been guided solely by his constitutional duty to help Parliament exercise oversight, adding that he had “neither acted from any improper motive nor conducted himself inappropriately” in performing that duty.
The Minority Leader said it was not unusual for those uncomfortable with legitimate scrutiny to resort to ridicule and false claims in an effort to make the person asking questions “the subject of controversy” rather than address the substance of the matter.
Despite the attacks, Mr Afenyo-Markin said he would continue working with the Minority Caucus to set in motion the parliamentary processes needed for a full inquiry into a reported GH¢22 billion loss arising from GoldBod’s trading activities, as reflected in the books of the central bank.
He cited a separate figure from the International Monetary Fund, which has reported a loss of about US$1.7 billion under the programme in 2025, and argued that regardless of which institution’s balance sheet the figure sits on, it represents public funds.
Ghanaians, he said, are entitled to know the identities of the off-takers involved, the discounts applied to their purchases, who authorised those discounts, and what fees were earned on the deals. He also called for a full breakdown of the US$1.7 billion loss, including how much stemmed from foreign-exchange differentials, how much came from the prices at which GoldBod bought and sold gold, and what considerations informed the management decisions behind the trades.
Mr Afenyo-Markin said the Minority would keep placing such questions on the public record, “in writing and with our sources published,” so that Ghanaians could weigh the evidence themselves rather than take anyone’s word for it.
On the personal allegations against him, the Minority Leader said he intends to pursue “appropriate legal remedies,” while stressing that his focus, and that of the Minority Caucus, remains on the gold programme, the decisions taken and the public funds involved.
Leave a Reply