Private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu, has made a passionate appeal to President Nana Akufo-Addo to sack Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, over his handling of the controversial Sputnik V vaccine purchase.
According to him, the Minister’s continuous stay in office is an embarrassment to the state.
“This is unprecedented, a public officer breaching all these laws and he is still in office. We are begging Akufo-Addo to let the Health Minister leave the office, he is not the best man for the job. We beg Akufo-Addo in the name of God to let Agyeman-Manu leave the office, the embarrassment is a lot,†he said on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, Tuesday.
The call by Mr Kpebu is part of a groundswell of push from a section of the Ghanaian public for the Health Minister to resign or be sacked over the botched deal.
On social media, Ghanaians expressed discontent with the deal and the findings of a parliamentary probe into the vaccine purchase.
The Health Minister has been cited for breaching a series of protocols in the purchase of the Russian-produced vaccines to shore up ongoing vaccination against COVID-19 in Ghana.
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The lid was first blown off the controversial deal by the report of a Norwegian newspaper.
Subsequently, a parliamentary committee was instituted to probe the deal.
The recent report of the parliamentary committee on the botched deal has tasked the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to take steps to recover the $2,850,000 expended towards the purchase of several doses of the Sputnik-V vaccine.
Although the Minister has said he did not pay any money on behalf of the state to obtain an initial 20,000 doses supplied to Ghana from a shady middleman, the committee found that 50% of the total contract sum was actually paid.
 “According to the Bank of Ghana, in its letter of 31st March 2021, out of the total amount of US$5,700,000.00 owed to Sheikh Al Maktoum, an amount of US$2,850,000.00 representing 50% has been paid to him and that translates into a Cedi equivalent of GH¢16,331,640.00 converted at the exchange rate of US$1 to GH¢5.73,†excerpts of the report stated.
The committee also found that the Ministry of Health did not comply with the requirements of Article 181(5) of the Constitution in respect of its agreement with an intermediary, Messrs Al Maktoum, the controversial middleman.
Martin Kpebu added: “If you fail to follow due process, you do lone ranger as Mr Agyeman-Manu did, unauthorised commitment is a crime. With every passing day, it just gets worst, this is a person who has embarrassed us as a nation.â€