NHIA boss on mansion grabbing spree; turns highest bidder of lands in La

It has become certainly clear that appointees and officials of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) would not stop milking our poor country until they are eventually voted out of power.

The rate at which these officials keep acquiring properties in recent times can only described as heartbreaking and pathetic.

The Daily Searchlight has been embarking on a journey to make known which government officials are putting up what, when and where.

In our quest to unravel the ongoing rot in the system under this current regime, we have been most surprised about the exploits of Mr Sylvester Mensah, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority in the Tse Addo area of La in the La-Dadekotopong Constituency of the Greater Accra Region.

As we keep searching, we have been reliably informed by sources within his quarters that he is now a proud owner of eight plush mansions within the enclaves of Tse Addo, a suburb of La located behind the Ghana International Trade Fair Centre.

The mansions of Mr. Mensah are so plush and unique in style that it is easily identified among other buildings in the area. In 2010, the Daily Searchlight published one of those buildings while it was still under construction. That mansion is a duplicate of the palace of a Japanese Prince.

We thought that was going to be end because that mansion is a dream of every successful man in life and once you have that, you cannot ask for anything better.

Little did we know that the NHIA boss was never going to be satisfied with that extraordinary ostentatious palace he has erected. In less than two years, Mr Mensah has managed to build seven more grand mansions. These buildings stand out by the type of roofing sheets he has used on them.

It is the most expensive roofing material one could ever get in the country. The same has been used by the Accra Mayor, Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije and the General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia.

He has rented out some of them while some are still unoccupied. He also occupies two of them. When scouts of the paper visited his residence recently, posters of President John Mahama were posted all around the twin mansion that he is currently occupying. Seeing the two mansions standing alone, one would think immediately that these are buildings usually found in Arab Emirates.

At a time that almost every well-meaning Ghanaian is complaining about the sustainability of the National Health Insurance Scheme, which is dying slowly, the man in charge of its management has now turned his attention to real estate development. In the process, Mr Mensah has become the highest bidder of lands in the prime areas of Tse Addo.

A plot of land which used to sell less that Ghc 20, 000.00 before the NDC took over governance in 2009 now sells not less than Gh80, 000. 00. This has been made possible by the extreme wealth of the likes of Prince Sylvester Mensah.

While some people keep wondering the source of his sudden wealth, others are also calling on the President to investigate the activities and dealings of Mr Mensah if he is indeed committed to fighting corruption in the country.

Some are also of the notion that he has used the NHIA as money making venture to amass wealth for himself and family.