Madam Martha Osei, stepmother of the late General I. K. Acheampong, former Head of State, has filed a writ at a Kumasi High Court claiming the property of the General's father.
She is seeking a declaration that house number Plot Four Block X at Asokwa Residential Area in Kumasi is the property of her late husband, Nana Osei Kutu alias James Kutu, which he gave to her and her two children.
She is further seeking a declaration that Nana Kutu has one third share in houses numbered Plot Three Block W, Asokwa Residential Area, Plot Six Block I, Asokwa Residential Area, Plot 12 Block I, North Patase and one three storey building at Kuntanase in the Bosomtwe-Atwima-Kwanwoma District.
Madam Osei is also claiming that her late husband had a share in the 30 million cedis Mr Kwaku Nyamekye transferred from the Ghana Commercial Bank in Kumasi in the 1980s to a woman trading partner in Accra to buy goods from Lome and interest at the current bank rate on the money found to be due to the estate with effect from January 1, 1982.
In her statement of claim, Madam Osei said she was the lawful customary widow of Nana Osei Kutu with whom she had two children before his death in November 1980.
She claims that before the death of her husband, he was running an Arms and Ammunition Enterprises with the defendant under the business name of Antwi Boasiako Trading Company, as undistinguished company earlier established by Mr
Nyamekye.
The statement said in 1974 at a meeting at the Castle with Mr Osei Kutu and Mr Nyamekye, the then Colonel I. K. Acheampong told the two men that he had instructed Mr Ernest Arko, then Inspector General of Police (IGP) and Commissioner for the Interior to arrange for import licence in the joint names of the two men to import Arms and Ammunition on a large scale.
The items were to be sold through the defendant's company and the profits were to be shared into three parts with one third going to the late Nana Kutu and the two thirds to Mr Nyamekye.
It said to enable the business to take off on a large scale, Colonel Acheampong caused a loan of 90,000 cedis to be given to the two through Mr Yeboah of Ghana Commercial Bank, Accra and that the two men obtained another loan of 70,000 cedis from the National Small Business Promotion Scheme in Kumasi, which then operated in the Ashanti Regional Administration Office.
According to Madam Osei, the latter loan was secured with two houses, one at Hwidiem owned by the son of the late Nana Kutu, John Kwadwo Taa with the other house at Twedie, Ashanti, belonging to the defendant's former wife, Madam Comfort Owusu.
The statement said upon securing these huge loans, the former Head of State got Mr Ernest Arko to give import licence in the joint names of the defendant and the late Nana Kutu to import Arms and Ammunition, becoming the sole importers.
Madam Osei said the business prospered, the loans were paid off but no dividends were declared or shared and that some of the profits were used to acquire landed property.
The statement said Mr Nyamekye represented to the late Nana Kutu that his daily travels from his hometown, Hwidiem to work in Kumasi and back home at the close of the day was not good enough and that he was going to purchase a house for him from his (deceased's) share of the profits from the enterprise.
It said the defendant bought House No. Plot Block X, Asokwa Residential in 1977 at an auction sale from the First Ghana Building Society in the name of Nana Osei Kutu, who thereafter moved from Hwidiem to live in the said house with the plaintiff, who has still got her bed in the said premises.
According to the plaintiff, her deceased husband gave the house to her and her two children as a gift. The statement said profits from the business were also utilised by Mr Nyamekye to acquire Plot Three Block W, Asokwa Residential, Plot Six Block I,
Asokwa Residential, Plot 12 Block I, North Patasi all in Kumasi and a big three storey building at Kuntanase.
It said the Kuntanase house was built from the scratch at the time cement was scarce but that Mr Nyamekye deceived the late Nana Kutu, taking advantage of his age to fraudulently represent to him that he (defendant) was going to use part of the business profit to put up a big house for the two of them in Kumasi.
The statement said induced by the misrepresentation, the late Nana Kutu got Commander Osei, then Ashanti Regional Commissioner, to allocate all the cement required for the building to Mr Nyamekye, which he used to build the house at Kuntanase his hometown, without disclosing the true facts to him (Nana Kutu).
It said in 1978, the defendant told Nana Kutu that the money in their business account stood at some 40 million cedis and that the money was to be shared with him together with the buildings.
The statement said after General Acheampong was executed Mr Nyamekye frustrated all efforts of his father to get his fair share of the properties and money and that this callousness sent Nana Kutu to his death.
Madam Osei said after the death of her husband, she made fruitless attempts to get Mr Nyamekye to disgorge her late husband's share of the properties and money realised from the business before she went into exile after the 31st December, 1981 coup.
She said upon her return to Ghana in 1999, she persisted in her efforts to get the defendant to account for his stewardship but to no avail.
