Noise Maker, Palm Wine Bar Talk, Prison in His Brain: Sammy Gyamfi tears into Afenyo-Markin

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), Sammy Gyamfi, has hit back at the Minority Leader, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin, over the threat of jailing an official of the board over a contested losses claim.

Speaking at the Government Accountability Series on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, Sammy Gyamfi said that he is not perturbed by the threats of jail by the Minority Leader, who is the Member of Parliament for Effutu.

“My good brother, Felix, says something. He says politics is a contact sport. So, when you are involved in politics, you are involved in boxing; you should be ready for tackles. You should be ready for punches. And some of us are vaccinated against political mischief. We’ve taken the vaccine, so we are not worried at all,” he said.

Sammy Gyamfi, who is also the National Communications Officer of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), went on to slam the Minority Leader over his record at the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) as board chairman.

He asserted that if any person should be in jail, it should be Afenyo-Markin, who he said supervised huge losses at the ECG as board chairman, adding that the claims made by the Minority Leader should not be taken seriously, describing them as “reckless”.

“But what I want to say is this: If the one under whose tenure as board chairman at ECG, you know, where ECG recorded a loss of 8.2 billion, is not facing any onerous bail terms, and how can Sammy Gyamfi under whose tenure the Gold Board has exported 170 tonnes of gold through formal channels and brought into this country over 17 billion United States dollars in one and a half years, face onerous bill terms?

“Such statements are reckless. They are what I call the fanciful efficiencies of, you know, of a palm wine bar; you take it as comic relief, and it is very sad. See, when we say this, he says we are insulting. We are not insulting him,” he said.

The NDC National Communications Officer then accused the Effutu legislator of denigrating the seat of the Minority Leader.

“This is somebody occupying a seat once occupied by the venerable JH Mensah, the venerable Papa Owusu Amkomah, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu. Look at the depth and the substance of these personalities. When they rose to speak in Parliament, look at the command they commanded across the aisle, and look at how this seat has now been so bastardised and depraved by a noisemaker who cannot even read and research and get his facts right,” he said.

He reiterated, “So, I will go. I will go to prison in his brain, and I will have onerous bill terms in his brain. I’m not. I’m not afraid of any intimidating taxes because we are serving Ghana in good conscience, and our resources and posterity will speak for us.”

What Afenyo-Markin said:

The Minority Leader in Parliament cautioned that the current leadership of the Ghana Gold Board could face stringent bail conditions in future when power changes hands.

Speaking at a press conference in Parliament on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, Afenyo-Markin drew a direct comparison between what he described as hefty bail conditions imposed on certain individuals linked to the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.

He specifically referenced alleged losses associated with GoldBod’s operations, which the Minority places at GH¢22 billion, arguing that such figures amount to causing financial loss to the state and could form the basis for future investigation.

“EOCO is going after people. The Attorney General’s press conferences are filled with accusations that individuals owe money, and those individuals are then invited to EOCO and later granted bail in huge sums,” he said.

“If that is the case, then the bail for Goldbod will be scary because the GH¢22 billion losses recorded in just one year is simply shocking. The NDC keeps accusing the NPP of being thieves, yet the sale of gold alone has cost the country GH¢22 billion in a single year. And when we raise these issues, they resort to insults and confusion,” he added.

Source: Ghanaweb