Lawyers for the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta and Keli Gadzekpo, a board member of the Bank of Ghana have debunked claims that the two had initiated conversations to acquire Capital Bank in 2016.
The lawyers in a statement said the claim by the bank’s founder, William Ato Essien was “malicious”, and “plainly false”.
William Ato Essien in an interview on Paul Adom Otchere’s Good Evening Ghana program last week said the two founders of Databank Ghana in 2016 engaged him on plans to acquire his Capital bank which is currently in liquidation.
Mr. Ato Essien made the claim to buttress his point that the bank was highly solvent and the decision by the Bank of Ghana to revoke its license was not right.
“If the bank was that bad would the current Finance Minister and the board chairman of Enterprise Keli Gadzekpo come to my office to say we are interested to buy Capital bank? Ken Ofori-Atta came to my office in 2016 to make that proposal,” Ato-Essien said in the interview.
But lawyers for the two persons in a response said, “We wish to place on record that neither Mr. Keli Gadzekpo nor Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta communicated to Mr. William Ato Essien an intention to acquire Capital Bank in 2016 as claimed by Mr. William Ato Essien. The claim by Mr. William Ato Essien against the two founders of Databank, a reputable Investment Bank, is plainly false, malicious and disingenuous.”
“In any event, it may be worth stressing that an expression of interest, prior to examining the books of a Bank, cannot be stretched to mean or even imply an endorsement or confirmation that Capital Bank at that material time had a clean bill of health,” the statement added.
Ken Ofori-Atta and Keli Gadzekpo through their lawyers further condemned Mr. Essien over what they said were defamatory comments intended to link them negatively to the recent banking sector clean up that was championed by the Bank of Ghana.
That clean-up has resulted in the number of commercial banks in Ghana reducing from 34 to 23.
“It must also be underlined that the Finance Minister, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, was/is not responsible for the events and/or decisions that led to the unfortunate collapse of any Bank in Ghana. His responsibility as Finance Minister was/is to manage the national economy and, more particularly the impact of such a major crisis – which commenced prior to the appointment of Mr Ken Ofori-Atta as Finance Minister,” the statement noted.
The post Keli Gadzekpo, Ofori-Atta deny allegation of planned acquisition of Capital bank appeared first on Citinewsroom - Comprehensive News in Ghana, Current Affairs, Business News , Headlines, Ghana Sports, Entertainment, Politics, Articles, Opinions, Viral Content.
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