The Managing Director for Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST), Alfred Obeng Boateng, has sued the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Boss, Duncan Amoah.
According to Mr. Obeng Boateng, Mr. Amoah made a false claim when he suggested that he [ Alfred Obeng Boateng] through his agents, had threatened to take his life, following allegations of financial malfeasance he leveled against him and the BOST recently.
[contextly_sidebar id=”iiF60ZMI5A5rbLvf1VnnwpHkunw0P4Vj”]The suit, which is expected to be moved on 23rd March in the High Court said: “ The plaintiff/applicant herein praying this honourable court for an order of injunction restraining the defendant/ respondent herein, his agents, assigns, workmen, and all persons claiming through or under him from further publishing or broadcasting any word or words or images in any manner whatsoever to the effect that plaintiff had coopted, engaged, contracted or solicited the services of any person or persons to curse, insult, attack, threaten the life of the defendant or threaten to kill defendant in three days pending a final determination to this suit upon terms more particularly stated in the accompanying affidavit.”
He is, therefore, asking the court to slap a GHC2 million damages against the defendant for damaging his professional reputation; 2 million cedis for damaging his social reputation and 1 million cedis for the psychological trauma the death threat publication has had on him.
Duncan Amoah had claimed his life was in danger after he uncovered a supposed shady deal at BOST which is believed to have cost the nation GHC 23 million in revenue.
According to Duncan Amoah, about 1.8 million barrels of crude oil was sold at a discount to an unlicensed company known as BB Energy.
He indicated that some unidentified assailants allegedly linked to Mr. Obeng had since this revelation vowed to eliminate him in three days.
Mr. Obeng, in a rebuttal, however dismissed these claims, saying the COPEC boss was being used to distract the new BOST administration.
The BOST MD held that if Duncan Amoah had genuine concerns, he would have approached BOST through more appropriate avenues as opposed to public utterances.
“If Duncan Amoah meant well, the first thing to do is to find out the rationale behind such decision be it commercial or not. But you cannot just get up and issue such statement that has potential to damage reputation of your fellow human beings and the very company that belongs to all of us as Ghanaians because of your individual interest of looking for cheap money.”
Mr. Obeng Boateng lamented further that, “everyday management [of BOST] is having crisis meeting because of these false and misleading publications thereby preventing management from concentrating on its core mandate.”
“Ghanaians and the media should not allow this selfish individual to fool us by placing his interest above the national interest, he added.
Explanation for ‘discount’
Mr. Obeng Boateng noted that, the oil in question could not have been sold at the official price because of the amount of time that had passed between the time of purchase and sale.
“In his [Duncan Amoah] statement, he exposed his ignorance when he stated that at the international level Quaibo Crude is sold at Brent plus $0.85 per barrel as official price, and therefore BOST has caused financial loss to the state by selling its own at a discount of $2 per barrel. It must be noted here that a cargo imported with the aim of refining or using for one purpose but did not materialize and reselling it about 10 months later, cannot be sold at the official price. Such a product is considered distress and is always sold at a discount globally.”
“As we speak, BOST has offers for such distress cargoes at a discount of $4 per barrel. Any person competent in the industry would have asked for the details before issuing this illogical and baseless statement actuated by malice and selfish interest to mislead the good people of Ghana. Thus keeping the crude for such a period may affect the quality and for that matter the yield, hence the assay is a factor in pricing,” he explained.
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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana