MP In Court Over �200bn Judgement Debt

AN ACCRA High Court presided over by Justice Elizabeth Ankumah will today hear a case in which the Member of Parliament for Asuogyaman is being accused of conspiring with four elders of the Akwamu Traditional Council to pocket some GH�20 million, being compensation for the people of Akwamu. The package was offered to cover lands used by government for the construction of the Akosombo Dam. The plaintiff, Nana Antwi Manu and the family head of the Ansaah Royal Family, are praying the court to order the MP, Rev Joses Asare Akoto, and his cohort, including the queenmother, Nana Afrakoma, to refund the money. The issue became publicly known when the Deputy Ranking member of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, Kwaku Agyeman Manu, on an Accra-based radio station, allegedly mentioned that in 2010, the government paid GH�20million to the people of Akwamu as compensation. According to the plaintiffs, Mr Agyeman Manu�s documents from the Auditor-General�s Department revealed that the money was paid in two tranches of GH�10 million each on the same day of February 25, 2010. Following the allegations, the people of Akwamu in the Eastern Region, through their counsel, Nkrabeah Effah Dartey, are seeking certain reliefs including an order for the five defendants to render full accounts of every cedi that has been used out of the GH�20 million compensation claims collected on February 25, 2010. The queenmother and the three elders- Nana Amo Bekai, the acting president of the Akwamu Traditional Council, Gilbert Larbi, registrar of the Akwamufie Traditional Council and Nana Asare Antwi, family head of the Royal Aboabo family of Akwamufie- have allegedly denied knowledge of the money. However, Rev Asare Akoto has reportedly confirmed that he led the other four defendants to claim the money. They are also asking for outstanding balances to be handed over to the Akwamu Traditional Council. They are also asking for an order for the bank accounts of the five defendants to be frozen. According to the plaintiffs in their statement of claim, since the 1960s, the chiefs and people of Akwamu had been following the compensation claim without success. The disclosure of the payment recently came as a shock to them. To unravel the persons involved in the reception of the money, a series of investigations began to determine who went in the name of the chiefs and people of Akwamu to collect the claim.It was through the investigations that the names of the defendants popped up.