Isaac Edumadze was a minor official of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) serving under NDC Presidential Candidate Professor John Evans Atta-Mills when he was sponsored to do a further course in Accounting to improve himself. He failed.
He then won the Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam Parliamentary seat on the ticket of the NPP in 1996 and became a humble back-bench Member of Parliament, a relatively unknown MP, never opening his mouth in the House, one of those that the Parliamentary staff refer to as “dumb MPs”.
In December 2000, the NPP won the Presidential and Parliamentary elections and President Kufuor appointed Isaac Edumadze the Central Regional Minister in February 2001. Suddenly, the burly MP found his voice, his strength and his wealth acquisition skills. For from that day onward, Isaac Edumadze was on the way to becoming a mega-billionaire in the true spirit of a property-owning democrat.
At a rally held in Cape Coast, Isaac Edumadze referred to Professor Mills, his former boss, as a “chamber pot.
He hijacked a taxi From Suhum and drove it all the way to Cape Coast and detained it until he was summoned to the Castle and chastised to release it. He did so many incredible things that when he was re-nominated to the post after the NPP won the 2004 elections, his own colleague MP from the adjacent Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa constituency, Hon. P.C. Appiah-Ofori, assembled 14 witnesses to testify to his corruption and against his appointment as a Minister of State.
NPP acolyte and First Deputy Speaker of Parliament Freddie Blay refused to give the witnesses a hearing.
But all this time, the evidence of Isaac Edumadze’s amassing of wealth was sitting in a file in the Auditor-General’s office and ticking away like a time bomb.
Then Isaac Edumadze made the mistake of his life. He sued the Chronicle newspaper for libel and subpoenaed the income tax records of its publisher, Nana Kofi Coomson.
In retaliation, the Chronicle also subpoenaed the completed Assets Declaration Forms (ADF) of Isaac Edumadze. Under the 1992 Constitution, the ADFs can only be produced upon demand by the CHRAJ, a Commission of Inquiry or a court of law. And so, last December, at the Cape Coast High Court, Isaac Edumadze’s Assets Declaration Forms were opened and read in open court.
And there, in his own handwriting, were Edumadze’s assets, almost all acquired from the time he was appointed a Minister of State. And this is a man who, as Minister of State, earns less than ¢5million a month, all allowances inclusive. President Kufuor, if you ever wanted evidence of corruption and dishonest acquisition of property, here is there evidence from Isaac Edumadze’s own voluntarily declared Assets Declaration Form. Will you, or will you not, investigate this one too?
Assets and Properties of Isaac Edumadze, MP for Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam as contained is his Assets Declaration Form
No. Description of Property Location Date of Acquisition Value (Cost)
1. 9-bedroom uncompleted house Ajumako 4th March 2001 Land cost ¢120,000.000.00
2. 20 plots of land Ajumako 1st March 2004 ¢30,000,000.00
3. 126 acres of cocoa farm Assin Amoabeng December 2003
4. 8 acres of citrus plantation Etsii Abeka January 2002 ¢3,000,000.00
5. 6 acres of citrus Etsii Ekurom ¢2,500,000.00
6. 35 acres of oil palm plantation Kwesil Ansah December 2001 ¢4,500,000.00
7. 21 acres of oil palm Effutuakwa December 2002 ¢10.000.000.00
8. 23 acres pf citrus plantation Ajumako
9. 40 acre land Tepa, Ashanti
10. Cattle ranch Kwesil Ansah March 2003
11. 6 acres of cocoa Breman Jamra
12. Mitsubishi Saloon Car No. GR 1709U March 2001 ¢30,000,000.00
13. Mercedes Benz E200 Saloon Car No. GT 6619T 2001 ¢490,000,000.00
14. Toyota Pick up No. GR 5563C September 2000 ¢17,000,000.00
15. Nissan Pick Up No. CR 437 V April 2004 ¢65,000.000.00
16. Hyundai Mighty Truck No. CR 97C July 2004 ¢35.000,000.00
17. Benz Bus No. GT 4279 H October 2004 ¢30,000,000.00
18
19.. Poultry Farm Ajumako/Cape Coast Earn Total of ¢250,000,000.00 per annum
20. Transport Business Ajumako Earns ¢130,000,000.00 per annum
21. Cash Balance NIB June 2005 ¢3,200,000.00
22. Loan Balance ADB ¢62,000,000.00
23. Cash-on-Hand £150,000.00 = ¢2,900,000,000.00
24. Cash-on-Hand Euro31,000.00 = ¢560,000,000.00
25 Cash-on-Hand US$110,000.00 = ¢1,056,000,000.00
26. Cash-on-Hand ¢225,000,000.00
Credit: The Chronicle, Monday December 11, 2006
