The recently-elected National Democratic Congress (NDC) national chairman, Dr. Kwabena Agyei has almost gone bankrupt as the auctioneer?s gavel is about to fall on his property. Dr. Kwabena Adjei?s Adenta property had been attached by an Accra High Court following his failure to pay back a loan facility granted him by the Ghana Leasing Company Ltd.

Part of his property had already been auctioned by court orders to defray ?147milllion debt to the Ghana Leasing Company.

The state of penury of the NDC chairman has set tongues wagging in party circles as concerned supporters fear that Dr. Adjei may end up being manipulated by the ?money bags? in the party because he would not have a mind of his own. This they noted would undermine his sense of judgment to steer the affairs of the party especially in this trial moment of mass registration.

Information available to Daily Guide indicates that the NDC chairman who was sponsored by the hawks in the party during the party?s recent acrimonious Koforidua Congress, had requested and obtained a finance lease for industrial printing equipment and machinery for his company, AC&P Printing and Promotions Ltd. Dr. Adjei and his wife, Comfort Adjei are the only directors of the company.

The company in April 2000, when Dr. Adjei was a cabinet minister and NDC majority in Parliament, secured a lease facilities totaling ?229,352,453 from the Ghana Leasing Company Ltd, to purchase the printing machines to enable it to commence full printing business, with the hope of paying back the money on specific agreed terms. However the company defaulted repeatedly in the payment of rent to the leasing company, culminating in a legal action in February 2002.

In the suit filed by Ghana Leasing Company at an Accra High Court presided over by Justice Yaw Apau, the company requested the termination of the lease agreement and demanded a sum of ?147,791,856. Dr. Adjei?s company failed to enter appearance, and judgment was subsequently entered in favour of Ghana Leasing Company in February 2003.

The leasing company?s lawyers, Kulendi@Law, applied for what in legal terms is called ?fifa? in order to enforce execution of the judgment. The court therefore attached Dr. Adjei?s property and auctioned some of them to the tune of ?28million to offset part of his company?s indebted to the leasing company.

The court also set in motion the process to auction Dr. Adjei?s Adenta property. A valuation of the said property was carried out by an independent valuer and the property was priced at ?100million.

However sensing later that his prized property which he said values more than ?100millon was slipping away, Dr. Adjei acted quickly and engaged in a lawyer to intervene on his behalf in order to get a market value for the property. He therefore contacted Alban Gbagbin?s Law Trust, where Lawyer Fusseini Inusah was assigned to him and he got a temporary reprieve for Dr. Adjei, saving the property from the auctioneer?s gavel.

A cheque for ?100million was therefore dispatched to Kulendi@Law, to reinforce his determination to offset the liabilities. The balance is yet to be settled with the interest piling up and the auctioneer knocking at the door.

When Daily Guide contacted Lawyer Inusah, he declined to comment saying he needed the directive of Dr. Adjei before he could talk to the media. ?Please, let me talk to may client first?, he indicated. However when Daily Guide re-established contact with the lawyer last weekend, he had not yet got Dr. Adjei?s reaction.