We used the law to ‘beat’ you; no one will compensate you – Trade Fair CEO ‘mocks’ Raymond Archer

Dr. Agnes Adu, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana International Trade Fair Company has said businessman Raymond Archer will not get even a dime from her outfit as compensation for demolishing his company as the company used the original tenancy agreement of the Trade Fair to take the action it did.

According to Dr. Adu who is believed to have closed ties with Gabby Otchere Darko, Mr. Archer breached the terms of his original tenancy agreement with the GITFC when he moved to occupy the space.

Raymond Archer, who is former News Editor of the Enquirer newspaper is now the Chief Executive Officer of Universal Labels & Packaging Co.

Limited and Colour Planet Limited whose premises were demolished by Trade Fair.

There were reports that an Accra court had placed an injunction to stall the demolition exercise, however, authorities of the Trade Fair Company Limited carried out the exercise without prior alert.

Reacting to these claims, Dr. Adu said Raymond Archer added to the compounding of the problems of the GITFC by his non-payment of light bills.

“Before I came in, there was accumulation of arrears – rent, electricity – cumulatively, they owe GHS300,000 to ECG before I walked in… Of course, ECG is going to come in and disconnect. When ECG disconnected, he [Raymond Archer] had no choice but to go bring a power plant for his private business to be able to survive.” She said.

“I believe that since I wasn’t here, what I have been told by the previous management is that, maybe, some of the tenants saw that that plant was big enough to tap in, so, some of them connected to it and ran their business with it. But it was his indebtedness that wounded us in electric bills that were passed to us; so, he has to solve his problem, he created a problem and then he solved it by himself and then he wants to blame the company [GTFC]”, Dr. Adu added.

“Compensation is law and not an entitlement. If you come in as a tenant, laws and covenants are governing your tenancy; I want to address, specifically, what Mr Archer put out there that Trade Fair watched him put things there. Going back into the 1990s, this company became a company in 1997; all tenancy agreements – and I’ve abrogated 200 of them – had a master clause in them; in the master clause agreement, you are told not to build anything permanently. Your buildings will be demolished if Trade Fair’s master clause is to be implemented and there will not be any compensation.” she went on.

“Today, yesterday, another notice has gone to the tenants; the site is no longer safe and the demolishing is continuing. We are giving them another month for them to move”, she explained.