General News of Monday, 18 April 2005

Source: GNA

Victor Selormey Is Dead

Accra, April 18, GNA - The death was reported in Accra on Monday of Mr Victor Selormey, former Deputy Minister of Finance, at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.
Mr Selormey had been fighting a serious cardiac problem for a very long time and had been on a pacemaker.
Mr Kofi Totobi Quakyi, a former Head of National Security in the government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), confirmed the news when the Ghana News Agency called him in Accra.
Mr Quakyi said on December 6, 2004, Mr Selormey's health deteriorated at the Nsawam Prisons where he had been serving a prison term and he was sent to the Cardiothoracic Centre at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
His family made interventions to government for his release so that he could make arrangements for further treatment abroad. The Government on March 3 remitted the remainder of his sentence and he was released from prison.
Mr Selormey was rushed to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital last in a bad state and he died on Monday morning.
Mr Quakyi said the party would come out with a full statement on the death soon.

President John Agyekum Kufuor on March 3 remitted the remainder of the sentence imposed on Mr Kwame Peprah, Former Minister of Finance and Mr Victor Selormey, Former Deputy Minister of Finance to commemorate the 48th anniversary of Independence. An official statement signed by Papa Owusu-Ankomah, Minister of the Interior, said:
"To commemorate the 48th Anniversary of Ghana's Independence, His Excellency the President in exercise of his prerogative of mercy under Article 72(1) 9d) of the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, has remitted the remainder of the sentences imposed on Mr Kwame Peprah, Former Minister of Finance and Mr Victor Selormey, Former Deputy Minister of Finance."
An Accra Fast Track High Court presided over by Mr Justice Dixon Kwame Afreh on April 28, 2003 sentenced Mr Peprah and two former top public officials to various terms of imprisonment for their involvement in the Quality Grain Company case.
Mr Peprah was sentenced to four years' imprisonment while Mr Ibrahim Adam, Former Minister of Food and Agriculture and George Yankey, a Former Director of Legal Sector, Private and Financial Institutions of the Ministry of Finance were sentenced to two years' imprisonment each. The Trial Judge acquitted and discharged Nana Ato Dadzie, Former Chief of Staff and Mr Samuel Dapaah, Former Chief Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
They were charged with conspiracy and wilfully causing financial loss of 20 million dollars to the State in a rice project at Aveyime in the Volta Region.
Mr Selormey and Mr Dan Kwasi Abodakpi also had another case in court. They were being tried on seven counts of conspiracy to commit crime and defrauding by false pretences and wilfully causing financial loss to the state.