Car saga: Prove you own them - Sam Okudzeto

A former President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Sam Okudzeto, has said all persons in possession of government vehicles should return them to avoid being pursued for such state assets.

“Just go and hand them over. If they claim they bought it, then they should go and show the evidence,” he told Nabil Ahmed Rufai on Class91.3FM’s mid-day news, 12Live, on Friday, 10 February.

His comments follow a claim by the president’s press secretary that 208 state vehicles fare missing from the presidential fleet.

Currently some officials of the former administration are being pursued over cars suspected to belong to the state. The personal car of Mr James Agyenim-Boateng, for instance, has been confiscated by soldiers who stormed his house on Tuesday, the aide to former Vice President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur has said.

According to him, the soldiers claimed they were acting on the instructions of Chief of Staff Frema Osei Opare as part of efforts to retrieve missing state vehicles.

According to Mr Agyenim-Boateng, the soldiers took his car away on grounds that he had not transferred ownership to his name since he took possession of the vehicle in 2012 from whoever sold it to him.

Also, the private residence of the National Organiser of the NDC, Mr Kofi Adams was invaded by soldiers who took away five cars which were later returned on the orders of National Security Minister Albert Kan-Dapaah.

Commenting on the issue, the former Chair of the International Advisory Commission of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative advised former government officials to produce documents to “prove that those who sold the cars to them have authority to sell, whether there was proper valuation,” adding: “That is what is the right thing to do.”