"419" Auction at Cape Coast

Crowd spit venom on auctioneer for "misconduct"

Mr Anthony Sekyi, the auctioneer, was ordered by the Cape Coast district magistrate court, presided over by Mr Eugene Obeng Ntim to sell the KIA Sportage unregistered vehicle after it had been advertised in The Ghanaian Times.

According to the aggrieved crowd the bidding started from 2,000 Ghana cedis and immediately someone mentioned 5,600 Ghana Cedis, Mr Sekyi belled out the auction without giving other buyers who had mentioned a higher amount the chance to continue.

Mr Kodwo Mbeah, a businessman, described the action of the auctioneer as "a disgrace to his profession" and said the Association of Auctioneers had recently come out to say that the Customs, Exercise and Preventive Services' (CEPS) had refused to give its members items to auction and asked if the CEPS was not right when its members (Association of Auctioneers) "were behaving in such a disgraceful manner".

"The essence of auction sales is to give the people the chance to bid and also get the highest bidder" he said and added that Tuesday's process was cooked because immediately Mr Sekyi's man mentioned "the planned price" the auctioneer belled and asked him to quickly pay up at the court's registry.

Mr Joseph Appeatse, a legal practitioner and Mr Anthony Kwesi Prah, a business executive who mentioned higher amounts but were turned down, expressed disgust at the behaviour of Mr Sekyi and said he had not conducted himself well and was a disgrace to his profession.

All the people around challenged the auctioneer and hooted at him for his "unruly behaviour" and called him names to which he told them to "go to hell".

A different story would have been told but for the intervention of some court workers.