�Minority's Attack Against Gov�t Is Far-fetched�- Mahama Ayariga

The Minister of Information and Media relations, Mahama Ayariga has described the Minority's attack against government and the Bank of Ghana for the sale of Merchant Bank Ghana Limited as �far-fetched�. According to the Minister, the minority in parliament had no justification for the accusations it leveled against parliament since SSNIT took the necessary steps to ensure the sale of the bank. �I know that SSNIT did not just get out of the blues to engage in the transaction with Fortiz. They engaged a very reputable transaction adviser and advertised the process. They gave other banks the opportunity and yet those banks did not exercise the option available so I think it is far-fetched to try and push this to government,� the Minister maintained Fortiz, a wholly owned Ghanaian equity firm, reached an agreement with the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and SIC Life to take over the majority stake in Merchant Bank in October, this year. The Minority in Parliament however attacked the sale of Merchant Bank Ghana Limited to Fortiz, calling it a "scam". Challenging both President John Mahama and the Bank of Ghana to "stop this fraudulent sale", the Minority said "we want to state emphatically that due diligence has not been done" with respect to the FORTIZ deal. But speaking on Eyewitness News, Mr Ayariga noted that SSNIT�s decision would not affect its employees since it had carefully considered its decision before executing it. �To the best of my knowledge Merchant Bank is an assest largely owned by SSNIT and SSNIT is directed by its board of directors and the board of SSNIT is made up of largely institutional representations so I believe that these are men and women who will confidently take decisions that will be in best interest of the workers whose funds they are managing� In his opinion, the best approach that the minority in parliament should have taken in resolving the problem amicably was to approach SSNIT to get some further explanations. �I believe that if the minority has an issue with the sale of merchant bank, they could easily have approached SSNIT to get some further explanations as to the processes they went through.� Meanwhile the Vice President of Imani Ghana, Mr. Kofi Bentil says the minority in parliament�s concerns are legitimate and justified. He noted that Imani Ghana and the minority in parliament were prepared to go to court to further clarify issues. �The concerns of the minority are legitimate and justified. Indeed they are not alone in their condemnation of this deal. We have put together all this and we are prepared to go court," Mr. Bentil stressed.