Trouble looms for Reconciliation Commission

Disturbing questions are looming over the head of Justice Kwaku Etrew Amua-Sakyi, the chairman of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), over the mode of acquisition of one of the estates he executed from his late father- as he sits to adjudicate the perpetrators of injustice against Ghanaians.

The Ghanaian Chronicle has learnt that a case which borders on forgery which has been in court for well over 28 years, with the NRC chairman as the combatant after executing his late father’s estate, would surely emerge before the NRC as the commission moves into full action. (The paper learnt ‘forces’ are marshalling their armoury to strike anyway).

In 1991, the Kaneshie police arrested the late Kobina Amuah-Sakyi, father of the NRC chairman, and three others, namely, George Hutton Addy, Edward Bruce Jr. and Rail Amuah Sakyi. They were charged with conspiracy to steal, forgery of documents, possessing forged documents, and altering forged documents.

At the end of the hostilities, it was established that they had forged a dead person’s signature and used it to take possession of the property of Octogenarian Okwahu Chief Nana Yaw Sasu, for the Afram Plains and Kwadwo Solomon Ampiah, a retired civil servant.

Both police forensic analyst report signed by Asst Supt John Nkuah, government analyst, in 1991 and a Registrar of Births and Deaths (RBD) report indicate that the documents the late Kobina Amuah Sakyi used in court to take possession of some property at South Odorkor in Accra were obtained through forgery.

It further was established that they forged the signature of the late Madam Sophia Vanderpuye, who, according to the records at the Births and Deaths Registry, was already dead years earlier, at the time her signature appeared on the lands documents which the late Amuah-Sakyi used in court to take the possession of property of the two.

They were later charged for using forged documents to seize the property belonging to Nana Yaw Sasu and Solomon Ampiah.

Following this revelation, the late Kobina Amuah-Sakyi, and two of his accomplices were convicted in 1993 by the Greater Accra Regional Tribunal presided over by Kwasi Aggrey, for using the said forgery documents to wrestle the house and five stores belonging to the octogenarian chief and Ampiah’s building.

It came to light during investigations that Sasu and Ampiah in 1973 and 1974 respectively, purchased their lands from the late Nii Ayikai Stevens II, then acting Mantse of Akomajay stool in Accra.

When they started developing their various lands, Kobina Amuah-Sakyi also brought a deed of variation altering the sites of the lands and claimed ownership. The case was therefore sent to court and when the court detected an element of forgery in it, the presiding judge decided not to sit on it again, because one of the respondents had written to the chief justice.

The case was later transferred to another court but after six sittings, the complainants failed to attend any of the sittings. As the court was about to deliver its ruling, another letter from the chief justice’s office came, transferring the case to another court.

The Ghanaian Chronicle learnt that the new court’s attention was drawn to the forgery raised during the earlier hearing of the case, but it was ignored and the court went ahead to give judgement and handed the property of Nana Sasu and Ampiah to the late Amuah-Sakyi.

An initial appeal by Sasu was dismissed but he vowed not to give up. Both Sasui and Ampiah later reported the forgery to the police.

While the case was being tried, the Confiscated Assets Committee (CAC) took over the possession of the property. After the upshot of the police investigations and fresh trial, the CAC authorised that the property be released to its rightful owner. But Sasu is still without his property, even though Ampiah’s has been released to him.

A year after his conviction in 1993, Kobina Amuah-Sakyi passed away and his son who is now the NRC chairman assumed control over the property as an executor of his late father’s estate. Neither the police forensic analyst report that implicated the late Kobina Amuah-Sakyi and his colleagues nor the order by the Confiscated Assets Committee in 1995 authorising the release of the house number B357/15 at South Odorkor to its rightful owner, has been complied with.

This is this is because Justice Amuah-Sakyi is defending the interest of lat father’s estate against the octogenarian chief at the other end. The Chronicle has learnt that, with the establishment of the NRC, Nana Sasu is polishing his shoes to petition the commission over what he perceives as injustice in the highest order meted to him by the retired judge as the executor of his late father’s estate.

What makes Nana Sasu’s case more curious is the allegation that his disputed property and Solomon Ampiah’s property were in their estimation illegally taken from them by the late Kobina Amuah-Sakyi. After the conviction of the deceased, Ampiah’s property was handed over to him while Nana Sasu is still in court battling with Justice Amuah-Sakyi.

Justice Amuah-Sakyi defended his role when he told The Ghanaian Chronicle that as an executor of an estate, he was not party to his father’s case when he was alive and therefore was not involved in any wrongdoing.

He said as an executor, he has to defend his father’s interest. “If my father was alive, he would have been in court fighting over the case and, as an executor, I am only defending the interest of the estate of my late father that is what the law says,” he told the Chronicle.

“An executor has no interest in a litigation at all,” the NRC boss went on. You can make your friend as an executor of your estate and you can even make the Register-General also as an executor.”