[ 2012-02-11 ]

MP Denies Pocketing GH¢20M Judgement Cash
The member of Parliament for Asuogyaman, Rev
Josiah Asare Akoto, and four elders of the Akwamu
Traditional Council, including the queen-mother,
have denied knowledge of a compensation of
GH¢20million they have been accused of pocketing
by some people of Akwamu.

The GH¢20milion package was allegedly offered by
government to cover lands used for the
construction of the Akosombo Dam.

In their statement of defence, the MP and the
elders have argued that an action brought against
them was based on mere allegations without any
factual evidence, so it should be struck out by an
Accra High Court presided over by Justice
Elizabeth Ankomah.

Counsel for the defendants, Kweku Paintsil,
yesterday moved a motion to strike out the
action.

However, after he and Mr. Nkrabeah Effah Dartey
finished arguing on the motion and the trial judge
requested for time to study their case in order to
give a ruling on a later date, Mr. Paintsil, upon
a second thought, withdrew his motion.

This was after he had taken a cue from the bench
to allow the case to go on as it had caught public
attention.

The judge struck out Mr. Paintsil's motion as
requested and adjourned the case to February 23
for the two parties to argue a substantive motion
for injunction filed by the plaintiff, requesting
that the defendants' accounts be frozen.

Mr. Paintsil, before the adjournment, argued for
the action to be struck out on grounds that before
the commencement of the action, neither the
plaintiff nor the lawyer took the trouble to read
the report of the Auditor General on the Public
Accounts of Ghana 2010 to verify the truthfulness
contained in it.

He argued that if the plaintiff, Nana Antwi Manu
and his lawyer, Nkrabeah Effah Dartey, had gone
through the document, they would have come to the
realization that the money was paid to two towns,
Apaaso and Pai, which he said did not fall under
the Akwamu Traditional Council.

Counsel, who argued that payment to the two towns
did not mean payment to the traditional council,
informed the court that his clients were not aware
of the money.

He expressed displeasure over Mr. Effah Dartey's
choice of words in the statement of claim.
Counsel had described the defendants as criminals
who should be locked up behind bars.

Mr. Paintsil indicated that the words were to
incite prejudice against the defendants without
any bases.

Mr. Effah Dartey, in response, prayed the court to
allow the trial to go on as they had enough
grounds to institute the action.

He said when they heard the Deputy Ranking Member
of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament,
Kwaku Agyeman Manu, say on radio that the amount
had been paid to the people of Akwamu, they
conducted series of investigations to find out who
received the money and it came to light that it
was the defendants.

Mr. Effah Dartey explained that they never
mentioned that the money was paid to the Akwamu
Traditional Council and that if Mr. Paintsil was
speaking on behalf of the council, then his
argument was irrelevant.

He maintained that the Apaaso and Pai areas formed
integral parts of the Akwamu Stool land, hence if
money was paid to the two towns it went to the
people of Akwamu.

According to him, although it was stated in the
report that each town had been given
GH¢10million, the report did not indicate who had
received the amount.

He said the queen-mother and the three elders,
Nana Amo Bekai, the acting President of the Akwamu
Traditional Council; Gilbert Larbi, Registrar of
the Akwamufie Traditional Council and Nana Asare
Antwi, family head of the Royal Aboabo family of
Akwamufie, denied knowledge of the money.

Initially, Mr. Effah Dartey had said the MP for
Asuogyaman, when questioned, snubbed the
investigations but because of his position,
mentioned that he went with four people to collect
the money, adding that they later got to know the
four were the elders, hence the action against
them.

Mr. Effah Darteh observed that the court was the
only avenue they could prove a case so the judge
should give them audience by allowing the trial to
go on since the issues they had raised in the writ
would need empirical evidence.

He indicated that since the burden of proof lay on
them, if they were unable to prove a case against
the defendants, the court could make a decision.

After his submission, the court asked him why he
chose to use offensive words against the
defendants but Mr. Effah Darteh said he was ready
to prove everything in the statement filed in
court.

The plaintiffs, Nana Antwi Manu and the family
head of the Ansaah Royal Family, on behalf of the
people of Akwamu, are praying the court to order
the MP, Rev Asare Akoto, and the four elders to
refund the money.

They are also seeking certain reliefs including an
order for the five defendants to render full
accounts of every cedi that had been used out of
the GH¢20 million compensation collected on
February 25, 2010.

According to the plaintiff, since the 1960s, the
chiefs and people of Akwamu had been following the
compensation claim without success. The disclosure
of the payment, they said, had shocked them, and
were therefore were suing the five defendants to
claim the money.

Source - Daily Guide

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