Justice Yaw Apau
Executive Secretary of Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC), Asakkua Agambila, has brought a sudden twist into the case involving Subin Timbers Limited, a company that was confiscated by government in the heat of the revolution in 1982.
He asked the Commission of Enquiry investigating the payment of judgement debts to revisit the matter, because the beneficiary of the deconfiscation could not have been the owner of the company.
He told Sole Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau of the Court of Appeal, that there was an amalgamation of a number of companies, including Subin Timbers Limited, into Western Veneer and Lumber Company (WVLC) after the confiscation. He noted that Ohene Kofi (deceased) who claimed to be the owner of Subin Timbers should not have been given everything at WVCL.
Document at the Commission
Documents available to the commission showed that one Daniel Kofi Adobor appeared before the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) and requested that Subin Timbers be given to him because it belonged to his deceased adopted father (Ohene Kofi).
Setting Records Straight
However, setting the records straight, Mr. Agambila said that the government actually took over and turned Subin Timbers Company, together with Central Logging and Sawmailing Company which had also been confiscated, into Western Timbers Limited (WTL).
He said the government later merged Western Timbers Limited and Takoradi Veneer and Lumber Company Limited (TVLCL) into Western Veneer and Lumber Company (WVLC).
He said in 2006, the DIC requested the President to approve the WVLC divestiture and it was given out in 2007 at $3.5 million to an investor.
De-confiscation Process
Mr. Agambila told the commission that in 2000, Ohene Kofi petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) as the owner of Subin Timbers and sought to get it back.
At the NRC
He revealed that after the death of Ohene Kofi, ‘one Daniel Kofi Adobor, brought the matter to the NRC and repeated the claim for the property’.
He said based on the NRC findings which he said the DIC considered untenable, the AG wrote to the committee informing it that the NRC had deconfiscated Subin Timbers.
The Takeover
He added that in December 2008, the office of the President wrote to inform Ohene Kofi that the government had deconfiscated the property so he could reclaim it.
He was, however, quick to add that in July 2009, the DIC wrote to the Chief of Staff expressing doubt about Ohene Kofi’s claim since their search at the Registrar General’s Department revealed that he was not even a shareholder in Subin Timbers.
‘We want the commission to set the matter to rest by asking the AG to tell the basis of coming to the conclusion that Subin Timbers belonged to Ohene Kofi,’ Agambila demanded.
By Willian Yaw Owusu
This article has 0 comment, leave your comment.