CELEBRATED INDUSTRIALIST Benjamin Amponsah Mensah, famously known as B. A Mensah, would today go home to his maker after 88 years of a life well lived.

Even before his mortal remains are interred in his hometown of Kumawu in the Ashanti Region, the children he left behind have raised concerns about the seizure of several properties he tirelessly worked for. At a memorial church service held in his honour at the Ridge Church in Accra

Yesterday, one of his children, Bernard Kojo Mensah, senior to Herbert Mensah, expressed disappointment in the continuous withholding of his father’s property in spite of several court rulings in their favour. “Despite success in the courts and a declaration that the seizure of his company was illegal, at the time of his death, the properties had still not been returned to B. A Mensah nor had he been fully compensated for their seizure,” he noted.

This, he said, was in view of the fact that “the litigation, almost a quarter of a century old, continues while SSNIT and Duraplast and BAT continue to occupy or support the occupation of property B.A purchased and developed and used to contribute to Ghana’s economic and business development and success”.

This attracted expressions of ‘aw’ by the congregation. Present were former Presidents Jerry John Rawlings and John Agyekum Kufuor who sat right in front the pulpit from which Bernard read the biography of his late father nearly moving to tears. Others included members of the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration and National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration including Hackman Owusu Agyemang, Isaac Osei, Felix Owusu Agyepong, Sheik I.C Quaye, Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu and his wife, Betty Mould Iddrisu, Alex Segbefia and a host of others.

Tribute

In a brief tribute to the late B.A Mensah, former President Kufuor described him as “an entrepreneur of the highest order; one of whose vision and foresight allowed him to see opportunities where others were doubtful.”

He spoke of the late B.A Mensah, whom he preferred to call ‘Rock of Ages’ as a man who “was able to turn his dreams into reality, and from a very humble background, he started to create an industrial empire at a time when doing business was alien to most of his compatriots.”

Apart from being shocked when the news of the death got to him, Mr Kufuor said “my sadness was also because the viciousness of politics in our part of the world prevented B.A, despite his many accomplishments from attaining his full potential in the business world.”

But for the harsh contradictions of the politics in the country, the former President noted with emphasis that “B.A and the likes of Appenteng-Mensah of Panbros Salt, Siaw of Tata Brewery, Kofi Owusu of Kowus Motors and a few others in that clique would have been to Ghana what Rockefeller, Carnegie Morgan, Ford and Vanderbilt were to the industrial development of the United States.

Unlike his colleague, former President Kufuor, Mr Rawlings did not get an opportunity to speak on the occasion but was dully acknowledged as present at the event. Sermon was delivered by Most Reverend Dr Justice Ofei Akrofi, Aglican Bishop of Accra. Soon after the service, the mortal remains of the late B.A Mensah was dispatched to his hometown, Kumawu where the burial and funeral are scheduled to take place.