SFO to the rescue over abuse of office

The Ablekuma North Constituency of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) is reeling under serious confusion as tension continue to mount among constituency executives while the Serious Fraud Office sits on a disciplinary committee’s findings and recommendations of massive fraud against Mr. Kofi Ofori (Bella), the Constituency Chairman.

A disciplinary committee set up to scrutinise the case involving ‘illegal’ sale of the former Ablekuma Sub-Metro offices at Abossey Okai, a suburb of Accra, for commercial purposes, recommended that Bella and one Babanta be disciplined according to the established rules and regulations on their conduct.

“Their actions are without authority, illegal and an abuse of office. They used their positions to improperly acquire and control the Assembly’s property for their personal gain under the guise of protecting AMA’s interest”, the committee, under the Chairmanship of Hon. Joseph Acquaye, also an Assemblyman, found.

The committee also suggested that “any attempt to maintain the stalls while the AMA seek to rent new offices to house the new Abossey Okai Sub-Metro would amount to causing financial loss to the AMA”.

This paper is in possession of a police report of Mr Ofori’s arrest when the incident happened, of which he was given police bail by one Amuah Awuah, a former Presiding Member of the AMA.

However, speaking to Gye Nyame Concord, Mr. Samuel Martey, a government appointee of the Assembly in the constituency, blamed the Serious Fraud Office as the cause of the serious unrest due to what he described as their lackadaisical attitude in conducting its investigations into the case.

Mr Martey noted that after being invited by the SFO for interrogation concerning his (Martey) knowledge about the whole saga several months ago, he sees no reasons why the SFO has not been able to communicate its findings and recommendations to anyone, especially when many people also cooperated with the office to facilitate the investigations.

Giving details as to how the Sub-Metro decided to relocate its offices, he explained that it was based on an advice from the Ministry of Local Government that due to the inconvenience caused by the location of the then office of the Ablekuma Sub-Metro, there was the need to relocate the office.

Mr Martey noted that it was upon this advice and subsequent acceptance by the Assembly that Mr Kofi Ofori, then the Sub-Metro Chairman, was given the authority to facilitate the conversion of the office into stalls for onward rental.

The Assemblyman noted however that after renting out the stalls, Mr. Kofi Ofori failed to render an account to the Assembly, which he said, forced the Assembly to interdict him with the conviction that he would submit the statement of account.

Mr Martey revealed that as a result, the former Local Government Minister, Hon. Agyei Darko, ordered that an enquiry be instituted into the matter and advised that those found culpable be punished accordingly.

He said subsequently, the SFO invited some of the culprits for interrogation. But since then the SFO has failed to come out with any finding or recommendation, he said, stressing that this was creating a lot of tension within the area.

Mr. Martey therefore called on government to express interest in such matters and order for the necessary actions to be taken to forestall sanity in the affairs of the Assembly.

Contacted for his side of the story, Mr Kofi Ofori denied knowledge of the various allegations.

He said that he had never sold any stall belonging to the Ablekuma Sub-Metro Assembly and threw this question to this reporter: "Whose stalls did I sell and whom did I sell them to?"

When further pinned, he admitted knowledge about the conversion of the former offices of the Ablekuma Sub-Metro Assembly into stalls but noted that he did not embark on that exercise.

He also denied that the assembly, of which he was the Sub-Metro Chairman, set up a Committee to look into the alleged illegal sale of the said stalls and found him culpable by recommending that he be interdicted, as well as refund monies he collected from the traders he sold the stalls to.

He again quibbled, "If that was what I did, why didn't anyone take me to court?"