The action comes after a pro-government newspaper the Statesman reported the President was misled when he okayed the agreement for parliamentary consideration.
Boakye Agyarko has been at the Presidency but met with the Chief of Staff Frema Opare. He has been under growing public pressure to resign with workers of the Volta River Authority the latest to call for his dismissal.
The workers say the Minister had demonstrated he "is absolutely not on top of his job" after he reviewed a 2015 deal entered into by the Mahama administration which the Akufo-Addo government promised to review because the $510 million deal was over-priced by $150m.
But with about two and a half years for the 5-year deal with Dubai-based company Africa & Middle East Resources Investment Group (AMERI) to run out, the Energy Ministry announced the deal has been revised as the government promised.
Under AMERI II, the deal is now a 15-year contract to be taken over by a new company Mytilineos. The ministry claimed the reviewed deal will save the taxpayer $405m, a claim which the Africa Center for Energy Policy has called misleading.
ACEP has said rather than making any savings, the new deal will cost the taxpayer $937.5 million. Critics have expressed shock at what they described as a blatant rip-off.
The minister "has paid the ultimate price" for a reviewed deal, the the Presidency's Communications Director Eugene Arhin has told Joy News Monday.
A statement signed by the Presidency's Communications Director Eugene Arhin said the Lands and Natural Resources minister John Peter Amewu has been tasked to take over until a subtantive appointment is made.
He said the departure of the minister is in the interest of the Ghanaian public and the Akufo-Addo government. He becomes the first minister under the Akufo-Addo government to lose his job.
The sack comes after a pro-government newspaper the Statesman reported the President was mislead when he okay the agreement for parliamentary consideration.
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