Former Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu has launched a scathing attack on President John Dramani Mahama over the government’s response to the conviction of the former Managing Director of Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), Asante Berko, who has been convicted by a court in the United States of paying a bribe of over $1 million to officials of the Government of Ghana in the ASKA power deal.
Martin Amidu, in his latest strongly worded epistle, dismissed suggestions that the state security is now going to look into the scandal to find the government officials implicated and bring them to book.
According to Martin Amidu, the OSP began investigating the AKSA bribery case in 2020 and that the file was inherited by the current Special Prosecutor.
According to Amidu, the case was later removed from the OSP’s published list of cases under investigation.
His write-up was titled, “WILL PRESIDENT MAHAMA STOP DECEIVING GHANAIANS AND TELL US WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OSP INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE AKSA BRIBERY DEAL? – BY MARTIN A. B. K. AMIDU”.
Parts of his write-up stated, “Asante K Berko was appointed the MD for TOR by the NPP government of Nana Akufo-Addo to take effect from January 1, 2020. He resigned from TOR on April 15, 2020, following the US-SEC civil suit already referred to herein, without the Nana Akufo-Addo government, which accepted his resignation, referring him to the OSP for investigation and possible prosecution as it had done when it wanted the blood of John Mahama in the Airbus SE-Ghana bribery scandal. The modus operandi in these AKSA and the Airbus cases is similar”.
He challenged President Mahama to inform the general public about what happened during the OSP investigation that started during his tenure.
Martin Amidu stressed that the government is now going to investigate the matter is an insult to the people of Ghana.
“With the investigative tools and other tradecraft available to the Government of Ghana (GoG), a completed investigation docket must have been ready by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) or other law enforcement agencies in respect of other criminal aspects of the Asante Berko-AKSA-Ghana bribery deal before the National Democratic Congress (NDC) won the December 7, 2024, elections. Indeed, any responsible GoG committed to fighting graft must have been prosecuting the Ghanaian entities and individuals involved in the case at the same time that the United States Government (US-Gov) was prosecuting Asante Berko in a US court.
“It is, therefore, insulting to the intelligence of the electorate for the Attorney-General to be informing the public for the first time since the John Mahama government’s ORAL investigations that the government, through the Attorney-General, is collaborating ‘with his United States counterparts to bring to book persons who are implicated in the bribery scheme related to the 2014-2017 power plant development contract between a Turkish energy company and the Government’,” he said.
Martin Amidu’s remarks come on the heels of the Deputy Attorney General, Justice Srem Sai who in a social media post disclosed that Attorney General Dominic Ayine was engaging his US counterparts following the conviction of the former Asante Kwaku Berko, concerning the AKSA power project in Ghana.
His post stated, “The Honourable Attorney-General is working with his United States counterparts to bring to book persons who are implicated in the bribery scheme related to the 2014-2017 power plant development contract between a Turkish energy company and the Government.
This follows ASANTE KWAKU BERKO’s conviction by a United States federal jury in Brooklyn, New York, on charges of conspiracy to violate the United States’ Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other related laws”.
Background
The former TOR MD Asante Berko was convicted by a federal jury in the United States over a bribery and money laundering scheme linked to a power plant project in Ghana.
Asante Kwaku Berko, a dual US-Ghanaian citizen, was convicted in Brooklyn on August 6, 2026, on all counts in the indictment, following a nine-day trial before US District Judge Diane Gujarati in the Eastern District of New York.
According to information gathered, Asante Berko and others conspired to pay more than US$1 million in bribes to Ghanaian government officials to help secure a multimillion-dollar power plant deal for Turkish energy company AKSA Enerji Uretim A.S.
The shady deal centres on a power plant deal that was under development and financing between December 2014 and July 2015.
However, details provided by US court documents disclosed that several Ghanaian officials allegedly received bribes to facilitate a power plant deal during Ghana’s power crisis in 2014 and 2015.
The US court document, however, did not provide any names but provided institutions connected to AKSA Enerji’s emergency power project bribe.
The court document detailed that Asante Berko and his co-conspirators paid and conspired to pay bribes to individuals at various levels of the Ghanaian government to ensure that the said company AKSA won its bid to build and operate the power plant.
See his statement below:
@ghnow_ There are issues in every family, I call my sister (Adwoa Safo) “Sokode” – Akofenya speaks #GHNow #fyp ♬ original sound – GHnow
@ghnow_ “I take all the blame, I am sorry for this disgrace to my father”- Akofena Speaks #GHNow #fyp ♬ original sound – GHnow
