Petition over GHC5m land fraud at SSNIT: Bediako dumps EOCO

The Convener for Movement for Truth and Accountability, Joseph Bediako, has announced his resolve to petition the Presidency over what he says are some ‘dubious’ land deal, Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) entered into with a contributor’s money.

His decision to take to the Presidency is because the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) he initially petitioned, seem not interested in the case and are likely to sweep it under the carpet, he told the New Crusading GUIDE.

Though he was full of praise for K.K Amoah, the Executive Director of EOCO for inviting him over for his statement, after close to a month without attention, Bediako believes the other workers are trying hard to make nonsense his case.

According to Bediako, an earlier petition he sent to the Office was nowhere to be found at the time he was invited and the officers asked him to furnish the office with a new one but should not mention it to the media.

“I was cajoled by some of the staff that they were going to work on it meanwhile the truth is that they had lost the evidential document I sent them. So I was made to write a statement on the 22nd of March and promised a follow up call but I have not received any call yet. This makes me believe the instinct in me that says they want to make the case a foolish one”, Bediako, a former FONKAR executive sneered.

He was of the view that the presidency could help investigate the matter and recover the over five million dollars of the contributor’s money back from the company that fraudulently sold the land to SSNIT.

“I voted for Nana Addo because I believed in his message which sought to say all suspected corrupt deals would be investigated and persons involved dealt with. However, I see that those at EOCO are not willing to help the President and his government succeed in that regard”, he observed.

Should the presidency fail to pursue to recover the five million dollars, Joseph Bediako, hinted that he would head for court to retrieve those monies because his passion is to see an end to corruption at public places.

Recalled that on 3rd March 2017, Joseph Bediako petitioned EOCO to investigate management of SSNIT over the circumstances that led to the payment of some five million, four hundred and fifty thousand dollars (US$5, 450, 000) to purchase a land which was fraudulently acquired by Premier Portfolio LTD.

The one and half acre plot of land, located close to the SSNIT guest house in Accra, originally belonged to one Mr. Nunoo, a businessman, who legally purchased it from the Osu stool in 2004.

However, a report from an investigator revealed that an unknown source at the Lands Commission, transferred the land to Premier Portfolio, a company owned by one Kwabena Duffour, without the notice and consent of the rightful owner in 2016.

Two different High Courts, presided over by Justices Anthony Agbada and Merley Wood respectively, returned the ownership of the land to Mr. Nunoo and instructed the Lands Commission to plot the said land in his name, which has been done.

The return of the land to its rightful owner means the hard earned monies contributed by workers to take care of their retirement in the near future has gone waste.