Another Judgement Debt In The Offing...NDC Gurus Fingered In GHC 400m

An amount of GHC 400 million in judgement debt seems to hang aroung the neck of government as the Chief Executive Officer of Gbewaa Civil Engineering Company Limited heads to court, over the sale of Tohazee Hotel in Tamale. Alhaji Yakubu Kasuli, who claimed he bought the facility in the 90�s and paid cash for it, has instructed his lawyers from Gyabour and Co., to proceed to court and sue Mr. PV Obeng and Alhaji Hudu Yahaya for breach of contract. While accusing the ruling National Democratic Congress' First National Vice Chairman, Alhaji Hudu Yahaya of claiming ownership of the hotel, Alhaji Yakubu Kasuli alleged that Mr. PV Obeng, who abrogated the transaction, said Nana Ato Dadzie, who was the then Secretary to the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), instructed him (PV Obeng) to nullify the deal. He said: "I bought this hotel nearly 14 years ago during the PNDC days and not just that, I decided to buy it because it was advertised and I was the only person who tendered for it. We were three people including the late Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama who tendered and it ended up that my price came up to be the highest and so the hotel was offered to me." Signing the Memorandum of Understanding, he recalled: "Some of the conditions which were clearly spelt out were that workers of the hotel were to take 5% and the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) would have taken 5% of the transaction." "These terms of reference were adhered to at the time the deal was sealed," Alhaji Yakubu Kasuli noted. "When I went to SSNIT, they told me that I should finish with the payment and also with the renovations and come out with a final figure which they will pay 25% shares of the final figure; so that was the final agreement between me and SSNIT, I paid for it and then went with a representative of SSNIT and a representative of workers of the hotel to register the company as Mariam Hotel Tamale.� Alhaji Kasuli bemoaned that three days after the payment, he was summoned to the office of Mr. PV Obeng who told him that he was instructed by Nana Ato Dadzie who claimed the directive was from Chairman Rawlings. "When they handed it over to me, exactly the third day I was summoned to the office of PV. Obeng and was told that he had received instructions from the office of the PNDC Chairman that they should nullify the transaction. Well I didn�t know what actually was the cause of that because I had fully paid for it and if anything at all I was not queried.