A leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Otchere-Darko has highlighted the dangers of tagging businessmen as politicians and treating them with hostility.
He says such a conduct destroys businesses and stifles economic growth.
Mr Otchere-Darko says he yearns for the day that businessmen will not be painted with political colours but just be considered businessmen.
“I yearn for the day when business people will just be business people. And, will not be treated with party political brush. Not NKP businessman or DCP businessman.
“They just want their business to succeed and create jobs. The tagging destroys. It stifles growth in Africa,” the private legal practitioner wrote on his X platform.
It is unclear which particular case study he was writing about but his comments come at a time when the Majority Leader in Parliament Alexader Afenyo-Markin has warned the National Democratic Congress (NDC) against attempts to destroy Ghanaian businesses following the criticisms of the agreement between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML).
It is recalled that in demanding for the prosecution, the National Communications Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi also called for the immediate termination of all the illegal contracts entered into between SML and the GRA.
He also called for the retrieval of all payments made by the government to SML under the “illegal agreements” which they said have occasioned a huge financial loss to the State.
“We are also demanding the immediate publication of the full KPMG investigative report on the dealings between SML and the GRA and the prosecution of all persons involved in the award of illegal contracts and the illegal payments thereof, to SML,” Sammy Gyamfi said at a press conference in Accra on Monday April 29.
But addressing a press conference in Accra on Friday, May 3, Afenyo-Markin said “Now we are aware that our friends in the NDC are calling for certain prosecutions. I think that they have not paid attention to the whole issue and they only want to do politics as usual. Their call is unfounded for the simple reason that there isn’t any established proof of any officer of state causing financial loss to the state.
“Indeed what they think are payments to SML are not payments borne out of the government’s revenue. If you peruse the agreement, SML is paid out of what it generates and they would have to pay attention to the details. They are paid 0.05% per litre of revenue that they generate as a result of the system that they put in place to monitor activities in the petroleum sector.
“And it is instructive to also note that this company opened its doors to the Mines and Energy Committee to inspect and to see the nature of their operations. What I want to urge our colleagues in the opposition is that they should not kill Ghanaian businesses.
“Often under the guise of due diligence and ensuring that there is transparency, we often get out of control and destroy Ghanaian businesses.
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