Ntim vows to rescue B/A for NPP

Posted: The Chronicle |Tuesday, February 23, 2010

By Charles Takyi - Boadu

A leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and national chairman aspirant, Steve Ayensu Ntim, has expressed concern about the way the National Democratic Congres (NDC) was making inroads in the Brong Ahafo Region, which is considered the stronghold of the party.
Speaking a press briefing in Accra yesterday to round up his nationwide campaign, Mr. Ntim, who has an insight into the region where he hails from, noted that though the NPP makes heavy claims that the region was one of its strongholds, eight out of the 12 constituencies in the northern part of the region are occupied by the NDC.

He named the constituencies as Jaman North, Tain, Wenchi, Techiman North and South, Kintampo North and South, Nkoranza North and South, Pru, Sene, and Atebubu.

Mr. Ntim considered the situation a gradual desertification of the northern part of the region by the ruling party, since according to him, “politically, Brong Ahafo is being turned into a desert by the NDC for the NPP.”

For this reason, he said, “if we are not careful, if we don’t take strategic measures, what will happen is that the NDC will eventually take over the region.”

Once the NDC has been able to achieve this, Steve Ntim believes they would focus their attention on the Ashanti Region, which is the lifeline of the NPP. “If this happens, NPP must forget about winning power in this country.”

He therefore advocated for what he described as ‘political tree planting’ to plant trees along the northern part of the Brong Ahafo Region to turn the area into a ‘political forest’ for the NPP.

Mr. Ntim believes the election of Asiedu Nketiah, Yaw Boateng Gyan, and Mrs. Adoma, as General Secretary, National Organiser and Deputy National Women Organiser respectively, who are all from the region, and other influential members of the party, could lead to a virtual political desertification of the region.

For this reason, Mr. Ntim said, “if as a party, we decide not to select some of our big shots from Brong Ahafo Region, then we risk falling into the trap that has been set.”

His only prayer is for the Almighty to help him deliver his party and Ghanaians from the hands and mercy of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration.

According to him, whenever he goes on his knees to pray, the only thing he asks God is for him to “deny me the chairmanship, if he knows that I cannot, for any reason, take the party to power in 2012.”

This, according to him, was because he was not interested in becoming the party’s chairman for the mere sake of it, but wants to become who “with the help of the Almighty God will lead the party to power in 2012.”

The aspirant stressed the need for the NPP, as a party, to put its house in order, to ensure a resounding victory over the NDC in 2012.

He also urged delegates who would have the opportunity to vote in Saturday’s national conference, to give him the mandate to lead the party to victory.

SUPREME COURT EXPOSES CCM PASTOR, 4 OTHERS

… For attempting to take properties of Assemblies of God
Posted: The Chronicle |Monday, February 22, 2010

By Charles Takyi - Boadu

The Supreme Court has exposed the fraudulent activities of the former Head Pastor of the Calvary Charismatic Church (CCC) in Kumasi, Reverend Ransford Obeng, and four others including Joseph Opoku, C. K. Acolatse, R. K. Owusu and one C. O. Kpodo, for attempting to defraud the Assemblies of God Church, Ghana, of its right of ownership.

A ruling dated February 3, 2010, under the hands of Justices Dr. Date-Bah, Adinyira, Owusu, Dotse and Anin Yeboah, all of the Supreme Court, said the circumstance under which Rev. Ransford Obeng purported to have changed the registration documents in respect of a plot of land situated at No 12. Atimpongya, upon which the church building complex has been sited, from the Calvary Charismatic Centre into Calvary Charismatic Ministry (CCM) smacks of fraud.

According to the court, the CCM was not in existence at the time the land was purchased in 1990, and that for Rev. Ransford Obeng to change the purchase date from 1990, when there was no division, to 1992, smells of fraud.

The learned judges further noted, “it will be manifestly unjust to allow them to enrich themselves by their own fraud.”

The court’s ruling emanated from an appeal brought before it against the Assemblies of God Church, to overturn the ruling of the Court of Appeal on the same case.

The Assemblies of God Church sued Rev. Obeng and the CCM upon the receipt of letter from them dated November 16, 1992, in their capacity as Board of the CCC, where they informed the Assemblies of God Church of their decision to cease affiliation with them, with effect from November 19, 1992.

This compelled the Assemblies of God Church to file a suit at the High Court to make claims for its properties, since the defendants were making desperate moves to take over both movable and immovable properties of the church, including the church building itself.

The Assemblies of God Church won the case, but the defendants appealed against the ruling at the Court of Appeal, and still lost. They then proceeded to the Supreme Court for it to overturn the ruling of the Court of Appeal.

The Supreme Court therefore sought to determine whether CCC was a local branch of the Assemblies of God upon its establishment in 1985, or became an affiliate only in 1990, when it acquired the ‘set in order’ status.

It also wanted to ascertain whether the decision of the CCC Board to cease affiliation with the Assemblies of God in November 1992, amounted to a division or secession from the church, whilst probing to determine whether the plaintiff lacked the capacity to have instituted the suit against the defendants.

“Our own indepth analysis and study of all the evidence on record, coupled with the exhibits and the judgments of the trial and the appellate courts, is that, what happened in the Calvary Charismatic Centre was that the defendants used their position in the Calvary Charismatic Centre (CCC) at the material time, hijacked the Calvary Charismatic Centre, declared their cessation agenda, in order to satisfy their own spiritual and material advantages,” the ruling stated.

From the scenario given in the record of appeal, the court said it was clear that the word division and cessation could be used interchangeably, since they meant one and the same thing.

As far as the court was concerned, the findings of the trial judge on this issue, and concurred by the Court of Appeal, were sound both on facts, and the law and found no reason to set it aside, making emphasis on the fact that “a party against whom two concurring findings have been made, first the trial Court and the appellate Court, must be slow to bring appeal to the second appellate court, such as this Supreme Court.”

The Supreme Court indicated that there must be cogent, strong legal grounds of appeal that must be filed and argued to convince the second appellate court to reverse the findings of fact.

The court also noted that it found no such compelling reason to disturb the findings of fact so ably formed by the trial court, and concurred by the appellant court. “We endorse the finding that what happened in the CCC was a division, and in context of this case, cessation and division mean the same thing.”

The court therefore upheld the judgment of the High Court dated December 11, 2001, as was varied per the majority judgment of the Court of Appeal, per Justices Lartey and Tweneboa Kodua, dated April 22, 2005 in entirety, and accordingly dismissed the appeal.

Ghana Airways deal raises more questions

… Whistleblower demands answers
Posted: The Chronicle | Friday, February 19, 2010

By Charles Takyi - Boadu

An aviation expert, Duke Odiasempa, who has petitioned the Minister of Transport, Mike Hammah, to take a second look at the liquidation of the defunct Ghana Airways (Ghanair), is not surprised about the continuous silence of transaction advisers, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC), on the deal.
From the onset, the Aviation expert says PriceWaterhouseCoopers had created the impression that its report was waterproof, and gave orders as to how it should be appropriated, stressing that it was ludicrous for PWC to direct that the report should only be used by the official liquidator; the Registrar General.

In its report, the PWC directed that the document should not be used by any other person or institution without its written instruction, and further stated that the report should not be distributed, discussed, or be disclosed, with any third party.

The PWC further stated in their report that they accept no duty, obligation, liability or responsibility for any party, than the official liquidator, concerning their work, a condition, Mr Odiasempa, describes as unfortunate, since “the disclaimer was an insult to the (country’s) Constitution, and a slap in the face of Ghanaians.”

For this reason, he stressed the urgent need for the sector Minister to summon the authors of the report to a meeting, to clarify certain technicalities of their work.

According to him, the claim by the PWC to the effect that they assisted the official liquidation to accomplish key liquidator objectives in the area of realisation in the administration was nothing but a hoax, meant to throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians.

Mr. Odiasempa raises doubts about the credibility of the PWC claim to have run a competitive bidding process in the liquidation of the airline, stressing that he was not the least convinced that the company did a good job, as far as that area was concerned.

This, according to him, was evident in the fact that the liquidation of Ghana Airways did expand into choice areas in the UK, such as Kingston-upon Thames, Heathrow Airport area, and other areas where the airline had movable assets.

He wondered why the PWC did not find any suitable value in Ghana, but went against what he described as their own Beaumont and Sons of the UK criteria for lawful liquidation, to form the basis upon which bids were to be evaluated.

According to him, it was earlier argued that Thameside, which offered to pay for the aircraft at US $820,000, was not the highest bidder, but for the different clauses put in the sales agreement, particularly that of CSDS Aviation, which bid further than US$900,000, stressing that the Official Liquidator’s letter of 2007, was disobeyed by the Ghana Airways Assets Disposal Committee.

After having the opportunity to study the said letter, Mr. Odiasempa said he was convinced that the government of the day, deliberately allowed the aircraft 9G-ANB to lie at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) to accrue landing and parking fees for no justifiable reason, saying “this is a financial loss by any definition.”

He emphasised that Ghana Airways also sold two of its F28 Mark 2000 without any debacle, and therefore wondered how come the 9G-ANB aircraft had to remain at the airport to accumulate more debt.

He stressed the need for people to be made to answer for this dereliction of duty.

The aviation expert also raises questions about how the PWC realised only US$20 million from the sale of 43 properties of Ghana Airways, and with an annual turnover of between US$90 million and US$100 million, Mr Duke Odiasempa wonders what exactly might have informed the decision to liquidate the airline because of a US$150 million debt.

Mr. Odiasempa, who has had the privilege of studying and reviewing a report submitted to the Ministry of Transport, by accounting and auditing giants PriceWaterhouseCoopers about the sale of the then Ghana Airways, has raised questions about the credibility of the sale. According to him, the airline only needed a payable loan of US$2 million to survive, but the government of the day declined to give the money to lease two B767-300ER aircraft from Aviation Spares, and therefore wondered what informed that decision.

Mr. Odiasempa indicated that Ghana Airways indeed had a preference to lease an aircraft, since according to him, engineers of the airline, and other foreign engineers, had inspected a B767-300ER aircraft at Zaventum in Belgium, and Shannon in Ireland, in the year 2003. Though various reports were filed and submitted to the then Chief Executive, by the company’s creditor, Aviation Spares International, at an affordable price of US$2,600 a block hour, he wondered why Ghana Airways failed to lease the aircraft, stressing, “The Minister of Transport and his deputy, at various times, had certain preferences, and importuned Ghana Airways to accept Nationwide Airlines of South Africa’s fuel guzzling B747-200 Combi aircraft into service.”

The Deputy Minister of Transport at the time was said to have invited the management of Ghana Airways to his office, and asked why it was obstinate in not selecting K&G Corporation to supply the airline with two B767-300ERs.

This was said to have compelled the then Chief Executive to confront the Deputy Minister somewhere in the year 2003, to ask him “if I am taken to Nsawam Prison in future, would you come and visit me and feed my family?”

The CEO was said to have been compelled by circumstances, at the time, to resign shortly, since he could not bear the extent of ministerial and government interference in the activities and operations of the airline.