"Beauty Queen" Grabs Two Ghana Airways Bungalows

.... For ¢24 Billion

….And she fully paid USD 1,700,000

…Her monthly salary is only GH¢2,557

Her Lordship, Justice Henrietta Abban, a.k.a ‘Beauty Queen’, who sensationally jailed Tsatsu Tsikata in the absence of his lawyer from court, was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the grabbing of the assets of Ghana Airways.

Justice Abban was seen to be politically aligned to the previous government and her jailing of Tsatsu Tsikata, former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) on June 18, 2008, was seen by legal luminaries as a politically motivated one.

Enquirer’s investigations have revealed that Justice Abban alone grabbed two huge blocks of flats at the plush Airport Residential Area during the liquidation of Ghana Airways.

Official documents gleaned by The Enquirer reveal that the Appeals Court Judge, whose monthly salary is GH¢ 2,5557.50 paid “USD1,700,000 in full” equivalent to almost ¢24 billion.

Whilst ordinary plots of land in the area cost far more than the amount the entire two blocks were sold for, it is the ability of a sitting Appeals Court judge to raise the USD1,700,000, which has sent tongues wagging.

Background

The Enquirer’s ongoing investigations into circumstances which led to the disposal of Ghana Airways assets revealed that the sale of the assets was fraught with lots of short circuiting to pave way for cronies of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Government to purchase those properties.

The Enquirer has gathered that an Aeronautical Engineer, who worked with the defunct airline for 20 years, was mysteriously by-passed by the liquidators of the assets of the airline who sold the residence he was occupying, to Ms. Ursula Owusu, a member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and a staunch supporter of Nana Akufo-Addo’s presidential bid.

Records available to The Enquirer indicate that Ms. Owusu purchased one of the most enviable real estate of Ghana Airways at House No. 3, on Continental Road in Roman Ridge, Accra, which was formerly occupied by one M.A. Abu, an Aeronautical Engineer of Ghana Airways.

Whilst Ms. Ursula Owusu was unable to disclose to The Enquirer exactly how much she grabbed the juicy real estate when contacted early this week, she has subsequently said on the airwaves that she bought the property for $300,000 and not $77,000. Industry analysts say the property was undervalued and that before it was sold to Ghana Airways, the house had been renovated.

Ursula Owusu worked with Nana Akufo-Addo at the Attorney Generals Department as a Special Aide but left under unexplained circumstances. She later worked with Zain Communications and was booted out of office. She now works as Vice President of the Federation of International Women Lawyers (FIDA).

Roman ridge is one of the deluxe residential areas of Ghana’s capital. Roman Ridge shares borders with Airport Residential and Dzorwulu areas.

An undeveloped plot in the same area, which is smaller in size and less juicy than the one sold to Ursula costs twice the value of the amount the bungalow was sold.

Interestingly, Engineer Abu had expressed interest in buying the house he had occupied throughout his working life with Ghana Airways and was asked to submit a sealed bid, which he did.

Surprisingly, the liquidators of the assets of Ghana Airways Limited, Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), strangely called Engineer Abu on the phone and told him that he was not qualified to buy the building.

The Enquirer gathered that the liquidators did not give him reasons why he (Engineer Abu) was not qualified to purchase the building.

After refusing to assign reasons for not selling the building to Engineer Abu, the liquidators also asked him to stay away from the house.

The Enquirer gathered that other employees of Ghana Airways Limited, apart from Engineer Abu, expressed interest in purchasing that building but they were all swerved.

Ms. Owusu confirmed to The Enquirer in a telephone interview that indeed she bought the house after she submitted a sealed bid.

According to her, she took a loan facility from her bankers to purchase the building and that she is still servicing the facility.

Ms. Owusu told The Enquirer that, as a Ghanaian, she was qualified, just like any other person, to buy the building and wondered why it is becoming an issue.

She, however, told The Enquirer that after paying for the building, the Lands Commission has not given her the necessary documentation.

It has turned out that the previous government could not conclude the documentation process before they were booted out of power and Ursula herself has been edgy in approaching the new government to complete the documentation.

Based on that, she told The Enquirer that she and others that purchased some of the properties were planning to go to court “for the right thing to be done.”

Asked by The Enquirer if the property has exchanged hands, she said that was not possible because the Lands Commission has not given her the documents.

Ghana Airways Limited, before its demise under the watch of the NPP government in 2004, had landed properties worth over ¢106 billion ($7,313,380).

There are credible indications that assets of Ghana Airways might have been undervalued.

The then government liquidated Ghana Airways because they refused to raise $2million requested by the then management of Ghana Airways to turn around the national carrier.

The Kufuor government decided to liquidate the airline with a promise to establish a completely new and modern airline, which was profitable. By the time they left office, the new airline they established was indebted to the tune of $55 million, with no assets to show for it, unlike Ghana Airways.

Surprisingly, the properties, which were both within Ghana and outside, were disposed of under such bizarre circumstances that it would be very difficult to trace some of the buyers today.

At the Airport Residential Area in Accra alone, the national airliner was in possession of plots that were valued at the time of the liquidation of the airline at $3,194,500.

The plots, according to the documents, include plots G2, G4, G6, H1, H3 and H5, which were valued at $1,684,500.

Within that same Airport Residential Area, Ghana Airways Limited possessed plot numbers G8, G10, H7, H9 and J2, which were also valued at $1,270,000 but they were sold off.

In addition to that, the airliner had a club house at Cantonments in Accra, plot 26D, which was valued at $400,000 but was believed to have been sold at a ridiculous price far less than its value.

The houses at the Airport Residential Area and the club house at Cantonments were valued to have generated rent of GH¢45,195,200 (¢451,952,000,000).

Apart from that, the Ghana Airways Training School , located at the Switchback Road in Accra, which was also valued at $779,250, was also sold under strange circumstances, in addition to four houses at Roman Ridge in Accra.

The Roman Ridge houses with Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 and were sold for a total amount of $322,830.00 to some unknown persons.

Again, Ghana Airways Limited had four houses at Sakumono, near Tema, which were valued at $31,800.00. The houses were numbered E22, C22, C24 and C26.

There was also another two-bedroom house at Dansoman, also in Accra, which was valued at $6,300.00 together with a bed-sitter valued at $2,800.00.

The company also had properties at Kisseiman, also in Accra, which included bungalows, flats and uncompleted buildings and bare land valued at $1,355,000.00, while it had another property valued at $23,000.00 at La-Ko (Labone) in Accra.

In Takoradi and Kumasi, in the Western Region and the Ashanti Region respectively, the national airliner had two houses that were valued at $17,800.00and $16,000.00 respectively.

Ghana Airways Limited also had properties at Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region and Tamale in the Northern Region as well, which were disposed of before the demise of the national carrier.

In Sunyani, it had two houses at the State Housing Area and SSNIT area, which were valued at $14,000.00 and $5,400.00 respectively.

As if the disposal of the properties in Ghana was not enough, those outside also suffered the same fate, as buildings in London in the United Kingdom and Freetown in Sierra Leone were also sold out.

In London, three buildings which were together valued at $973,600.00 situated at 72E London, 26St Christopher Close and 214 Wheatlands were all disposed of.

In Freetown, two buildings valued at $248,400 located at 22 Charlotte Street and 48 Lower Pipeline were also disposed of.

Interestingly, most of the properties were in good shape before they were disposed of.

All that was needed to put some of them in top shape was simple renovation, but in a typical game of ‘giving a dog a bad name just to hang it’, the properties were sold at ridiculously low price.