Former Energy Minister Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, popularly known as NAPO, has called on Mr. Bright Simons, Honorary Vice President of Policy Think-tank Imani-Africa, to retract and apologise for a post on X that wrongfully attributed a 2020 unitisation directive to him.
The post, which has also been highlighted in a GhanaWeb publication dated February 27, 2025, concerns the new government’s decision to withdraw a unitisation directive between Springfield Exploration and Production Limited (Springfield) and Eni Ghana Exploration and Production Limited (ENI) in relation to the Afina-1X Discovery and the Sankofa Cenomanian Oil Field.
In the post, Simons directly referenced Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh as the then Energy Minister who issued the Unitisation Directive.
However, the withdrawal letter signed by current Energy Minister John Jinapor referred to unitisation directive letters from the year 2020, when Dr. Prempeh was serving as Education Minister. Dr Prempeh only assumed office as Energy Minister on March 7, 2021.
Dr Prempeh pointed out that a careful reading of the withdrawal letter and a recollection of historical facts could have prevented Simons from making this avoidable error.
In his post, Mr. Simons stated, “The new government of Ghana has decided to save the country from further embarrassment by withdrawing a bizarre order issued by the former Energy Minister & Vice-Presidential Candidate of the former ruling party, NPP.”
Dr. Prempeh emphasised that while opinions on decisions by the new government are valid, they must be expressed with accuracy, circumspection, and decorum.
He demanded that Simons retracts and apologise for the wrongful attribution, as it is untrue.
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