Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum
• It has emerged that government bought the Sputnik vaccines at $19 instead of $10
• The rise in price is due to the use of middlemen in purchasing the vaccines
• Government bought the vaccines from the same Sheikh behind the AMERI deal
The Ameri Power deal of 2015 has shown up in an investigative piece about how the government of Ghana allegedly procured Sputnik V vaccines at a rate almost twice their market value.
A corruption report by Norwegian news portal, VG, cites one Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum of Dubai as the person whose outfit sold Ghana the ‘overpriced’ Russia-made vaccine, he happens to be involved in the Ameri gas turbines deal of six years ago.
An excerpt of the publication mentions that “when the Sheik sold overpriced gas turbines to Ghana via the company Ameri Group in 2015, Farooq Zahoor and the Sheik both signed the agreement.
“At the same time, Farooq Zahoor is wanted in Norway for what the police believe is his role in the spectacular Nordea fraud in 2010, where the conspirators emptied the account of a super-rich”.
The power deal was signed in 2015 between the then John Dramani Mahama government and Africa Middle East Resources Investment Group LLC (AMERI) as one of the numerous deals sealed to solve the power crisis.
The deal pitched the two political parties against each other with then candidate Akufo-Addo claiming that it was inflated by $150million.
After winning power in 2017, the government commenced steps to renegotiate the deal. The new deal which was drafted by the government courted backlash from civil society organizations and the opposition National Democratic Congress.
Discussions around the renegotiated deal cost the job of then Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko after President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was misled on portions of the renegotiated deal according to the Statesman – a newspaper owned by his cousin Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko.