Kumasi Lawyer in Trouble

Mr. Hanson Kwadwo Koduah, a Kumasi - based legal practitioner and lecturer of the Kumasi Polytechnic, will have to take steps to repay an amount of ?306 million to the First Vision and Golden Aid Investment or face legal action.

The plaintiff company claims the lawyer used fictitious means to take monies from it.

The action filed before a Kumasi High court last month is for the recovery of ?306,063,281, being financial assistance the plaintiff company extended to the defendant on November 15, 2002.

The lawyer cum lecturer would be required to pay interest on the said amount at the prevailing commercial bank rate from the date of receipt of the facility.

The company's Managing Director, Mr. Ernest Agbemor-Yeboah, claims the defendant has refused to pay the amount in spite of several demands against his admission that he took ?128,640,000 as financial support from the company for a project.

Even though Koduah promised to pay an initial deposit of ?30 million on May 9 and spread the balance according to a handwritten undertaking issued and witnessed by one Eric Acheampong on May 2, 2003, he has not honoured the terms.

In the said undertaking, it was agreed that a further ?30 million would be paid on May 19 and the remaining amount paid in the second week of June 2003.

But Koduah has reneged on his promise to abide by the terms of the undertaking. Agbemor-Yeboah said the plaintiff company has also taken action against other defaulting clients to retrieve a total of ?3.8 billion indebted to it by defaulting customers including the Kejetia Traders Association per its chairman Nana Samuel Kofi Boateng who was introduced to the company by Lawyer Koduah. The Kejetia Traders Association is indebted to the company by ?554 million, including interest.

The Chronicle has seen a deed of outright transfer of four commercial stores by the Kejetia Traders Association upon which it (KTA) collected ?192 million on November 25, 2002 from First Vision Susu at the instance of Koduah.

For legal services, Koduah rendered to the association, the ownership of two commercial stores- MT 25 and MT 29 - have been transferred to him as his bonafide property.

Also indebted to the company are Eric Addison of Asokwa in Kumasi (?524 million); Solomon Kyei of Milo Disco in Kumasi (?82 million); Madam Yaa Nkrumah, a renowned trader at the Central market in Kumasi (?110 million) and Tanko Mohammed of Bolgatanga (?50 million)

Presently, the company has in its possession, dishonoured cheques to the tune of ?435 million it received from defaulting customers.

The recovery of the of the ?3.8 billion, according to Agbemor-Yeboah, would enable the company also to settle the ?700 million it owes some of its customers in the region.