…after losing election

After suffering a humiliating defeat at the Western Regional Conference of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the immediate-past regional organiser, Mr. Kojo Acquah, had another shock of his life, when a Nissan pick-up vehicle he was using, was impounded by the police last week Wednesday, on the orders of the Regional Chairman, Nana Owusu Ankomah.

Information gathered by The Chronicle revealed that the controversial pick-up, with registration number GR 4463 Y, together with two others, were allegedly donated to the party when the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sekondi, Papa Owusu Ankomah, was the Minister for Youth and Sports in the past Kufuor-led government.

Mr. Kojo Acquah was given the pick-up to use in his capacity as the regional organiser of the party then.

The Chronicle gathered that when Kojo Acquah lost his bid to retain the position during the regional conference of the party, he did not return the vehicle, but continued to use it for his private errands.

Some of the party executives were not happy with the attitude of their former organiser, and subsequently, called a meeting to discuss the issue.

Sources hinted The Chronicle that during the meeting, the executives admitted that the vehicle belonged to the party, but were divided as to whether they should take it back, or leave it with him.

As a result of this deadlock, the Regional Secretary was directed to take inventory of all assets of the party in the region, and report back to the party for the necessary action, but before the secretary could submit his report, the controversial vehicle had already been seized by the police.

The Chronicle gathered from sources within the party, that Kojo Acquah was cruising with the vehicle on one of the beautiful streets of Takoradi, when he was stopped by the police, and the vehicle impounded on the alleged orders of the Regional Chairman, who was not happy with Acquah’s decision not to return the vehicle to the party.

The 1st regional Vice Chairman of the party, Mr. Kwesi Blay, confirmed the story when this reporter contacted him on phone. He was however not happy with the Regional Chairman’s decision, to instruct the police to impound the vehicle.

According to him, the issue about the vehicle came up during one of their meetings, and the conclusion was that the Regional Secretary should take inventory of all the assets of the party within a period of one month.

Kwesi Biney continued that before the Secretary could present the documentation on the party assets to the Chairman, Nana Owusu-Ankomah had already reported the matter to the police to impound the vehicle from the former organiser.

That action, according to Kwesi Biney, was totally wrong. According to Kwesi Biney, he was fully aware that there were party assets in the possession of the chairman, which he had not accounted for.

He named the said assets as a fax machine and computers among others. Biney told this paper that the vehicle in question was donated to the party by a philanthropist, but there was no documentation to that effect.

According to him, the party should have made a transfer of ownership into the name of the party, but this was not done, and the vehicle was registered in the name of Kojo Acquah, the former organiser.

The Chronicle gathered from independent sources that when the police questioned Acquah to ascertain how he came by the vehicle, he was able to produce documents to prove ownership.

He was said to have gone to the police station with Mr. Biney and K. K. Sam, the Regional Secretary.

Kojo Acquah refused to comment on the case when this reporter contacted him. But the police however confirmed the release of the vehicle to Kojo Acquah, after he produced documents to ascertain ownership.

Mr. Kwesi Biney, 1st Vice, also further confirmed the release of the vehicle to the defeated organiser.

Interestingly, some party stalwarts are fuming with rage, questioning the motive behind Kojo Acquah’s claim that the vehicle in question was his personal property.

According to party stalwarts, who did not want to be named, the action by Kojo Acquah to produce documents to back his claim that the vehicle in question was his personal property, amounted to ‘thievery’.

This was because the defeated organiser knew very well that the vehicle was party property.

This paper is reliably informed that the controversy surrounding the ownership of the said vehicle had now been forwarded to the Regional Command of the Ghana Police Service for thorough investigation.

Meanwhile, all efforts to get Nana Owusu Ankomah to comment on the story proved futile, as his cell phone was off.