Bryan Acheampong should stay off SSNIT assets - Ken Agyapong's brother delivers legal masterclass

Lawyer Ralph Agyapong, a member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) delivered a legal masterclass on radio relative to sections of the Companies Act and company registration processes.

Ralph, a brother of Assin Central Member of Parliament, Kennedy Agyapong, was reacting to the recent issues around the planned divestiture of hotels belonging to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).

SSNIT's decision to offload its shares in four hotels to an entity owned by the agriculture minister, Bryan Acheampong, has dominated news headlines this week.

According to Ralph, to the extent that Acheampong remained a director of Rock City Hotels Limited, it was legally problematic to seek to buy the said shares with him remaining a director of the company and minister at the same time.

He stressed that beyond the politicization of the issues, the matters of conflict of interest had grounds because they needed not to be real but could be perceived.

"Legally, he didn't need to buy it. There is now the issue of whether the sale had gotten parliamentary approval and whether the TUC was involved in this sale at all.

"For the benefit of law students, as a director so registered at the Registrar General, the appointed person and yourself will be called when an issue arises because a minimum of two directors are needed to register a limited liability company.

"In law, you (as a director) are deemed as a directing mind of the business interest," he explained stating that the minister's continued designation as a director needed to be abrogated once he took public office.

"Joe Ghartey and Godfred Dame are well versed in these basic company law issues and they should be educating NPP communicators," he stressed in an interview on Okay FM on May 23.

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Documents reviewed by GhanaWeb show that the minister remains a director of Rock City even though he explains that he has no direct role in the day-to-day management of the business.

The SSNIT-Rock City saga was first published by North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa who alleged instances of conflict of interest and undervaluation among other infractions.

SSNIT has insisted the transaction was above board and the minister has insisted that nothing untoward was occasioned.