$1.5bn Gallopers Saga: Ahwoi wants out-of-court settlement

A Former Minister of Local Government and Rural Development in the NDC 1 Regime, under whose watch the deal for the now contentious importation of 110 Hyundai Gallopers into the country by Africa Automobile Limited in 1999 was brokered, has waded into the fray.

Professor Kwamena Ahwoi was the sector minister at the time of the deal under the administration of former President Jerry John Rawlings.

AAL is demanding a colossal amount of $1.5 billion from the government of Ghana being interest accrued on the $17 million the company incurred for importing the vehicles on behalf of the Ministry in 2001.

According to AAL, in 1994, the Ministry ordered 110 Mitsubishi Pajeros from them. After the vehicles were put to good use for more than 5 years and due to the reliability of the vehicles and the quality after-sales service provided by AAL for all that period, the Ministry approached them to trade in the 110 Pajeros for brand new Galloper Station Wagons.

But the NPP insisted there was no contract between government and AAL covering the importation of the vehicles and that the vehicles did not also meet the specifications for Ghanaian roads as that time, amongst others.

Government later revealed it has engaged AAL in a dialogue with the aim of beating down the $1.5 billion claim by AAL on the 86 abandoned vehicles. But indications from government are that the settlement negotiation with AAL is currently deadlocked.

Prof. Kwamena Ahwoi, who had planned a news conference to state his side of the matter, on Wednesday, issued a statement in response to what he described as "certain inaccurate and misleading statements" that have been made on the subject.

He expressed concern that if government fails to "successfully negotiate an out-of-court settlement", the AAL issue might suffer a similar fate like the City and Country Waste Ltd versus the AMA case, where the NPP's position that there was no contract, has led to the present NDC government paying damages in excess of US$12million as a result of judgement debt.