Accra (Greater Accra) 18 March '99

An Accra circuit court will, on April seven, give a ruling on whether to grant an application for an injunction on the sale of part of the State Construction Company (SCC) property. The court, presided over by Col. Victor C. Doegah (rtd), however, advised counsel for plaintiffs and defendants to "put their heads together and attempt a settlement" before the adjourned date. SCC workers filed the application for an injunction and general damages against the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC), ACC Ltd, Merchant Bank and Mr David Kofi Boateng and eight others. The plaintiffs claimed that they were dissatisfied with the non- transparent manner in which the defendants, especially Mr Boateng, tried to buy the core of SCC. In their statement of claim, the plaintiffs said their action "involves the sale of SCC core, which comprises only Abelenkpe office, Ashanti Regional Office and machinery and not the total assets of the company, some of which had been sold since November, 1996". They claimed that one of the defendants, Mr Boateng, who is not a staff of SCC, has purchased two million shares worth 200 million cedis in ACC Ltd and is trying to purchase the SCC core without management consulting the workers. The defendants, in their affidavit in opposition, stated that under the DIC law, the trial court has no jurisdiction to hear the matter. They further stated that the value of SCC assets to be divested is 13 billion cedis, and that a matter involving such an amount could not be heard by a circuit court.