The Minority Caucus in Parliament has fingered the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, and President John Mahama and his brother Ibrahim Mahama for planning state capture of the worst kind.
According to the minority, John Mahama, since his second coming, has been facilitating his brother Ibrahim’s mining activities to place him in a strategic position in the mining regulatory sector.
The minority in a statement dated July 29, 2025, signed by Kwaku Ampratwum-Sarpong, MP for Mampong and Ranking Member of the Lands and Natural Resources Committee claimed, “Ever since President Mahama began his second stint as the President of Ghana in January 2025, the system has been set up to facilitate his brother Ibrahim’s mining activities, with former E&P employees placed in strategic positions in the mining regulatory sector.
E&P’s former spokesperson, Sammy Gyamfi, is now the CEO of GOLDBOD, the gold purchasing regulator. The top executives of the Minerals Commission are also former employees of E&P and still regard Ibrahim Mahama as their boss.
Other former employees of E&P are strategically positioned in various high offices in Ghana’s extractive sector. This is state capture of the worst kind, engineered and planned by the ‘engineers and planners’ of the NDC Government”.
The minority accused the NDC government of scheming to hand over the country’s resources to the President’s brother.
The minority statement added, “They are once again scheming to hand over the country’s resources to the President’s brother, as the President did in 2016. But this time, it’s more subtle and refined”.
“As the matter is still before the courts, our focus is not to rehash the legalities or illegalities of the Black Volta Gold Project agreement but to draw the public’s attention to the broader picture. To this end, we wish to point out that the Black Volta Gold Project is merely the latest in a pattern of political patronage backing Mr. Ibrahim Mahama, the President’s brother, in his business affairs.
“While E&P denies political patronage by the NDC government, the Ghanaian public is not deceived, and the evidence is irrefutable,” the caucus said.
The minority further alleged that Mahama’s remark during the inauguration of the Gold Board, July 8, 2025, suggesting it was time for Ghanaians to own gold mines, was limited only to the President’s brother and other financiers of the NDC party.
Mahama at the event stated, “The time has come for Ghanaians to own gold mines—to produce gold for export and ensure that the wealth generated benefits the nation directly”.
However, the minority claimed, “While this may sound like an invitation to all Ghanaians, it really is limited only to the President’s brother and other financiers of the NDC party. It clearly does not include gold mining entrepreneurs like Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, aka Chairman Wontumi, whose mines have been shut down on the orders of the Presidency.
This purely political persecution of a miner who employs hundreds of Ghanaians renders the President’s words hollow and hypocritical,” the Minority said.
Meanwhile, Sir Sam Jonah, a renowned Ghanaian business magnate, has rejected claims of political favouritism surrounding Engineers & Planners’ (E&P) acquisition of the transformative Black Volta Gold Project.
According to Sam Jonah, Ibrahim Mahama’s gold deal is merit-based, not political favouritism.
Sir Jonah asserted that the deal, valued at $100 million in financing from the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID).
He revealed that the deal is a purely merit-based and commercially viable transaction, heralding it as a long-overdue and essential shift towards empowering Ghanaian-owned enterprises in the nation’s critical extractive sector.
See the statement below:
