Edward Bawa, Member of Parliament for Bongo and a member of the Energy Committee in Parliament, criticized Attorney General Godfred Dame for misleading the public following the International Arbitration Tribunal’s ruling on the ENI/Vitol lawsuit.
The tribunal’s final award denied Eni and Vitol their claimed monetary damages, originally $7 billion but reduced to $915 million plus interest by the proceedings’ conclusion.
On July 8, the AG labeled the outcome a “major victory” for Ghana. However, in an interview on The Big Issue on Channel One TV, Bawa accused the Attorney General of neglecting the ruling’s essence.
Bawa asserted that Dame’s stance has damaged his reputation, alleging compromise to the integrity of his office.
“So, for the AG to have issued that statement and said that we have won, he zeroed down on the $7billion. If you look at ENI’s request to the Tribunal, it said, should government go ahead to unitise, we were going to be making a loss of about $7 billion.
And so, if government insists on going to unitise, then government should pay us $7 billion, this was a request by ENI. In the Tribunal’s ruling, they said we’re dismissing this $ 7 billion request because the unitisation has not occurred.
“However, you reserve the rights should the government decide to go ahead and unitise, to come back to make a request for that.
So, how do you consider this as a victory? I think the Attorney General’s posture, just goes to again darken his recent past reputation.
“Because if you have a situation where you are struggling on your very reputation based on a particular case you’re trying now.
When people think that you have behaved unethically, then, suddenly, there is a ruling. And you know this is a ruling that says the government of Ghana had breached provisions.
“So, for you to have come and issue a statement like that, it again dents the image of that particular organisation or department you’re heading.
