Statement By The Committee For Joint Action AT LAUNCH OF SIGNATURE CAMPAIGN IN SUPPORT OF GNPC EFFORTS TO ACQUIRE KOSMOS SHARES

Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the media. We thank you for honoring our invitation once again. We have called you this morning to discuss with the people of Ghana through your medium an important national issue which needs to engage the attention of all Ghanaians.

Ladies and gentlemen of the media, you would recall that about a fortnight ago we addressed you on the impasse between GNPC and Kosmos regarding the sale of the latter’s shares to ExxonMobil. Since our press conference, a number of developments have occurred which cannot be allowed to pass without serious scrutiny.

The forces who are desperately trying to deny Ghanaians an opportunity to increase their stake in the Jubilee fields have stepped up their campaign of vilification and blackmail aimed at getting the Government of Ghana and GNPC to capitulate on the matter .The latest arm-twisting tactic that has been adopted by these anti-national forces, is the sudden realization by the IFC, an arm of the World Bank and one of the financiers of the Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel(FPSO) that it has to do due diligence on a service contract awarded two years ago to Strategic Oil Gas Resources by MODEC, the engineering firm that constructed the FPSO .
Also, we are being told by Ghanaian newspapers, whose conduct and reportage have tended to defend the interests of Kosmos against the interest of Ghana, that MIGA, another arm of the World Bank that provided Political Risk insurance for the vessel that it has suspended its insurance cover for the vessel.
These newspapers have also adopted fear mongering tactics and created the impression that these so called due diligence processes will lead to a delay in the production of first oil for up to two years.
Ladies and gentlemen of the press; these machinations coming on the heels of recent pronouncements by Eva Levinson, a paid lobbyist of Kosmos and a self-confessed trouble maker for Ghana clearly demonstrates that a multi-faceted assault has been launched to grab the oil resources of Ghana at all cost. The record of Eva Levinson includes stints as a lobbyist for the pro- Iraqi war group within the US establishment and PR consultant for the dreaded Jonas Savimbi during his brutal insurgency against the Angolan government. She has the capacity to go to powerful members of the US administration and the IFC and World Bank in order to ensure that the interest of Kosmos is enhanced.
We cannot fail to mention previous attempts to use certain media organizations in the United States of America to soil the reputation of Ghana abroad. Regrettably; this is being done with the active collaboration of some members of the opposition and some media outlets. It is instructive to note that NPP which is today falling over itself and pretending to be so interested in the so-called due diligence shouted itself hoarse when efforts were made to scrutinize how the EO group came to possess a 3% stake in the Jubilee field which in monetary terms is worth a whopping $300 million when all they did was to introduce Kosmos to the government of Ghana made up at the time by members of the NPP.
In light of the foregoing, the Committee for Joint Action wishes to serve notice to the international forces and their local surrogates that it will use every legitimate means at its disposal to mobilize the people of Ghana to resist at all cost this blatant attempt to usurp the nation’s oil resources .
As a first step we wish to announce the launch of a signature campaign to collect the signatures of all Ghanaians desirous of seeing the preservation of the national interest in this struggle .A book will be opened from today for this purpose and any member of the public can pass by the freedom center from 8 am -8 pm to add his or her signature. We will subsequently announce other points where this can be done. Furthermore we wish to announce that at 4pm tomorrow we will hold a forum on the matter at this same venue where knowledgeable personalities within the Ghanaian society will speak.
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, we wish at this juncture to use your medium to call on all Ghanaians to participate actively in this struggle to avert the tragedy that has befallen us in the mining sector where despite over a century of gold mining, many of our citizens remain hewers of wood and drawers of water.
Finally we urge government not to be cowed by these attempts to blackmail and stampede it into submission but steadfastly guard the national interest in order to free our nation of the poverty and underdevelopment that we have been grappling with for all these years.

We thank you for coming and you may now ask questions.