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Company that was awarded massive airport lands deal has no existing office - Okudzeto Ablakwa

Terminal 3 New The lands in question is said to be within the prime Kotoka International Airport enclave

Sat, 7 Oct 2023 Source: www.ghanaweb.com

North Tongu Member of Parliament, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has stated that the company at the centre of a scandal involving some prime airport lands have no physical office.

According to the MP, his private investigation showed that the company has no presence whatsoever at the two locations provided in its incorporation documents as its office.

“So earlier today, I embarked on a journey to physically check out the two office addresses which have been provided by directors of Heaven Builders Limited in official documents.

“The first office address which is provided in incorporation documents at the Office of the Registrar of Companies is: House Number F 17, Site 4, Community 1, Near Mary Mother of God Church, Tema.

“When I arrived at this particular address at 11:30am, I was shocked to see a very ugly dilapidated residential structure which appears abandoned for many years. The decrepit structure was in a state of ruin and total disrepair,” the MP stated in his third publication on the Heaven Scandal published on Friday, September 7, 2023.

He noted that the supposed location of the company in Tema was rather an abandoned building which has not been occupied for over a decade except for a lone squatter living in the abandoned structure.

“A squatter in a shacky boys quarters told me the building had been abandoned for more than a decade. He has been squatting for some 7 years and throughout the period, the structure had never been used for an office as misrepresented in the incorporation documents of Heaven Builders.

“It is obvious that sleazy characters with fraudulent intentions deliberately misled public officials at the Office of the Registrar of Companies with this dubious non-existent “office address,” he said.

Similar to the situation at Tema, Mr Ablakwa noted that a second location given as the office of the company led him to the Central Business District of Accra where no trace of the company was found.

“The second Heaven Builders office address was contained on the letterhead used for their audacious recent counteroffer demanding 62.14 acres and a lease extension from 45 years to 99 years.

“The letterhead indicates — Office Location: 380 Kwame Nkrumah Avenue. P. O. Box 3566, Accra-North. It is instructive that this address is different from what they presented at the Office of the Registrar of Companies.

“This second address is another scam,” he stated.

While the entire stretch of 380 Kwame Nkrumah Avenue has been filled with a number of prominent offices, none of them according to the MP counted as that of Heaven Builders Company Limited.

“A thorough search of all the buildings at 380 Kwame Nkrumah Avenue did not produce Heaven Builders.

“380 Kwame Nkrumah Avenue is at the heart of central Accra’s bustling commercial enclave. It is near Tudu and Kantamanto. Notable edifices on that street include Cocobod, SSNIT and NIB. On the other side of that street is the ever conspicuous Greater Accra Police Regional Headquarters.

“The brigands and mosstroopers behind Heaven Builders seem very bold but not the least sophisticated,” the opposition MP emphasised.

The Heaven Builders Scandal

In the initial publication dated October 2, 2023, Mr Ablakwa alleged a ploy by the government and the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL) to sell off prime lands around the Kotoka International Airport at a giveaway price.

He further revealed that the President and the Minister for Finance had granted approval for the transaction led by GACL, on the blindside of parliament and thus described the deal as shady.

His findings included the fact that that the proposed agreement by the GACL means Heaven Builders will become owners “of 38.14 acres of prime airport land in the immediate environs of the Kotoka International Airport under the Airport City Phase 2 Project if they agree to carry out some dubious infrastructure such as roads and drains at a so-called cost of US$85,021,340.00.”

He adds that the company has since written back to GACL with a counter proposal asking for the land size to be expanded to 62.14 acres under the same terms.

In a subsequent publication on October 4, 2023, the MP made further damning findings and allegations against the company.

Some of his findings was that the Heaven Builders Limited according to its incorporation documents and insider sources is being fronted by individuals integral to the “infamous” Frontiers Airport COVID-19 testing company.

Also, the company according to the MP was incorporated with a stated capital of GH¢5,000 (five thousand Ghana Cedis) and an envisaged employee strength of one.

In his earlier publication, Mr Ablakwa revealed that the proposed agreement by the GACL means Heaven Builders will become owners “of 38.14 acres of prime airport land in the immediate environs of the Kotoka International Airport under the Airport City Phase 2 Project if they agree to carry out some dubious infrastructure such as roads and drains at a so-called cost of US$85,021,340.00.”

He adds that the company has since written back to GACL with a counter proposal asking for the land size to be expanded to 62.14 acres under the same terms.

Mr Ablakwa in the part two of Heaven Scandal alleged that two survey firms, Brightwater Property Investment Limited and the Ghana Institution of Surveyors have both disagreed with the terms of the counteroffer following independent assessment.

According to the MP, both independent assessments described the valuation of the land as terribly low.

In the case of the Ghana Institute of Surveyors, a 1.7 acre of the land in question was reported to have been sold for an excess of US$6.3million as far back as 2019 whereas Heaven Builders pegged the current value of an acre of the land at US$1.3million on average.



GA/SARA

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