Bench warrant for BoG ex-governor

An Accra Commercial Court has ordered the immediate arrest of S.K. Appea, former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and S. N. Adjei, a former lawyer for the bank, over the alleged disappearance of a $2.5billion loan package introduced to the Ghana Government by H. E. Van Kirksey and Associates International of Washington, an African-American company, somewhere in 1986.

The court presided over by Justice Margaret Insaidoo Wednesday ordered that the two men should be arrested and made to appear in court on Friday May 14,2010.

Justice Insaidoo subpoenaed four persons including S. K. Appea, to help the court trace the whereabouts of the said loan which has generated some controversy, in which certain people have blamed certain former state officials in the Rawlings regime in the 1980s.

Mr. Appea, then the acting BoG Governor who allegedly signed and sealed the mandate for the loan to be brought into the country, was to appear with Mr. Adjei, then counsel for the bank, Dr. K.G. Erbyn, then Chief Executive of Ghana Investment Centre and Aduamoa Bossman, former attorney for Van Kirksey and Associates, to say what they know about the agreement.

However, for over a year since that subpoena was issued, only Mr. Adumoa Bosssman, among the four, has appeared to testify.

Counsel for Egbert Addjeso, on whose request the subpoena was issued, assured the court that S.N. Adjei would be their next witness on May 12, 2010; however the witness failed to appear, for which reason the warrant was issued yesterday.

P.V. Obeng, then a member of the negotiating team, according to the plaintiff, had allegedly agreed to release a 3% commission of the loan package to the American company to close the deal, after all negotiations had been completed and the loan had been accessed.

The court earlier heard the testimony of one Brando Alfred Darko, an associate to the American company.

Mr. Darko, who was subpoenaed by counsel for Egbert Adjeso, a defendant in the case, disclosed that S.K. Appea, former Deputy Governor of Bank of Ghana, had informed Clifford Townsend, Vice Chairman of the American company that BoG signed two documents concerning the loan but those documents were later picked up by Mr. P.V. Obeng, a presidential advisor at the Castle.