June 24, Chronicle -- GHANA'S HIGH Commissioner to the United Kingdom, H.E. Mr. Isaac Osei has been accused of "stealing" two cheques covering a total of ?254,000, the equivalent of ?4,064,000,000.00 belonging to Chancellor Oppong Kyekyeku Kohl, a 37 year old Ghanaian graduate of the University of London.
Chancellor Kohl, who claims Envoy Osei has intercepted and kept a parcel containing two cheques covering the amount meant for him, has petitioned the President to intervene and cause a thorough investigation to establish the truth or otherwise of the allegation and ensure that the contents of the said parcel are handed over to him without any further hindrance and frustration. He needs the certificate to train as a barrister.
"I want to have the money back (original cheques or replacement) without engaging in any unnecessary litigation with agents of the government."
The petition dated May 25, 2005 is a follow up to a similar one on August 3,2004 which first drew the attention of the President to the matter.
When the president seemed not bothered about it, Chancellor Kohl lodged a complaint with the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), which also failed to act on the matter since it was reported to it on November 15, 2004 last year.
Stating his case, Chancellor Kohl complained that there was a dispute over his final year LLB result that resulted in his remand in London.
Chancellor Kohl complains that his name disappeared from the list of candidates of London School of Law because the University of London never sent his results along with other candidates.
He was arrested on the day his visa expired and charged with breaching civil injunction order and later dumped at the Maudsley Hospital as if he was a mental patient. The fact that there was no psychiatric evidence surprised both judges at the Highbury magistrate court and the Snaresbrook Crown Court, which threw the charges out.
The University later claimed that there was an administrative error resulting in not adding all the last answers written on separate sheets of all five papers in the final year after which a breach of civil injunction charge was brought against him but same was thrown out by the court and he was compensated for wrongful remand.
The compensation follows his acquittal on March 25, 2003 by the Snaresbrook Crown Court after the University failed to dispute the fact that Kohl had actually passed his exams.
He said he was deported back to Ghana after he had been labeled mad to cover up plans to steal the money.
The law student said he has information disclosed to him by his solicitors at Blavo and Co Solicitors at 19 John Street in London that the Snaresbrook Crown Court at the 75 Holly Bush Hill in London which had tried the case- Regina Vs. Oppong Kyekyeku Chancellor Kohl, had sent him a parcel through the Ghana High Commission to UK, H.E. Mr. Isaac Osei.
He is also informed that the deputy Ghana High Commissioner to UK received the parcel and handed it over to Osei after which a third accomplice convinced the two to find a way of cashing the cheques and subsequently influenced one Mr. Coffie (Ghanaian) and Michelle Mwangi, both caseworkers of the Blavo and Co Solicitors and who were known to the High Commissioner to do that. As a result, Mr. Colin Laryea, another caseworker to execute the plan.
According to him, a parcel containing two cheques for 100,000 and 154,000 pounds being compensation from the Senate House of the University of London and the Home Office respectively, a first class LLB Certificate and a letter to enable him obtain a visa to return to London were allegedly dispatched to Mr. Isaac Osei for onward transmission to him in Ghana since November 15, 2003 but has been kept for reasons best known to himself.
According to Kohl, the information was so confidential and secret that, the informant (solicitors) did not want to send any covering document to that effect.
But Envoy Osei denies having received any such parcel from the University. As at October 12, 2004, Osei denied receiving anything of the sort.
According to a correspondence of March 19, 2004, signed on his behalf by a Minister Counsellor and Head of Welfare and Consular at the Mission, Mr. J. Magnussen, the envoy stated that enquiries into the matter have not been positive because, " we have not received anything meant for you (Kohl) in this office."
In another message dated May 8, 2004, faxed to 051-30085 for the attention of Rev. Victor Osei of Family Chapel in Kumasi, the Ambassador said that the Mission did not expect to receive any such material and that they (Ghana Mission, London) were willing to further investigate the case if Kohl would assist them by indicating the source of his information and providing details that would help in verifying the claim.
Envoy Osei is also reported to have informed President Kufuor that he had gotten new additional information regarding the issue but has since not released that information.
He is reported also as having told the President that Kohl was mad and was not to be taken serious after he had narrated the arrest, trial and exculpation of Kohl to the President.
The President had as well been briefed about the perception that even in Kohl's university days, his (Kohl's) mental balance was suspect, explained in his decision to change his name from Oppong Kyekyeku to Chancellor Kohl.
Meanwhile, a Ghanaian medical doctor (name withheld) who visited Kohl while he was at the Pentoville prison and Maudsley hospital in London and stood surety for Kohl has certified that "Kohl is perfectly normal and that there is no evidence which says that he needs any psychiatric treatment."
In spite of the denial by envoy Osei, Chancellor Kohl still accuses Ghana's High Commissioner at 13 Belgrave Square in London of stealing his LLB certificate in law and two cheques, received as compensation for wrongful remand (remand No. JM6720) for five months from October 30, 2002 to March 29, 2003.
In-between this period (from November 28, 2002 to January 2, 2003), Kohl had been wrongfully kept at the Maudsley hospital.
After his release, one Mrs. M. Bankole, an immigration officer ordered his deportation after being detained for four days.
The aggrieved student says the High Commissioner is suspect and that he is unable to tell the truth after the initial denial.
Kohl has indeed expressed surprise that the envoy's purported investigation into the matter had not taken him to the Snaresbrook Crown Court where the parcel had come from and where the decision that the LLB certificate and some compensation be given him was taken.
The University of London, according to Kohl, has expressed surprise that Kohl has not received the certificate yet.
Kohl has in a correspondence on October 19,2004 asked Dr. Ian Budden, the Constitutional and Legal Adviser of the University of London to query Osei as to why he has kept the parcel since last year.
He mentioned also Richard Cannon and his co-worker Jonathan Rosse (Jeans Solicitors) as having colluded with the University of London to send him to the Maudsley hospital to create the impression that he (Kohl) was mad.
He said the fact that Osafo Maafo allegedly told one Yaa Helena of Kumasi to inform Kohl that the cheques would be sent through the post to him, smacked suspicion that the cheques had been cashed in Ghana and that as many as eight Ministers of State including the then Chief of Staff, Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani, Mr. Osafo Maafo, then Minister of Finance and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nana Akuffo Addo (once conferred with Kohl over the cheques) were privy to the issue.
Some aspects of the alleged interaction between Osafo Maafo and Yaa Helena over the cheques being sent through the post is currently under investigations by the Regional Crime Officer, Kohl declares.
He said he would rather die than succumb to the threats on his life for daring to enquire about his certificate and monies due him, saying if all else failed, he would not hesitate to spill the beans on the brain behind his frustrations regarding the cheques.