On Monday, 28 April 2025, the Upper East Regional Minister, Donatus Atanga Akamugri, ordered an immediate release of three auctioned motor vehicles of the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council (UERCC) to the individuals who purchased them.
The three motor vehicles were a Man Diesel Truck GE 366-15, a Volvo Tipper Truck GR 8599-9 and a Toyota L/C V8 Station Wagon GN 8928-12.
They were among some 14 vehicles and equipment the UERCC auctioned in June, 2024, but were not released to their purchasers because the UERCC’s chief director, Alhaji Inusah Abubakari, and a former Upper East Regional Minister, Stephen Yakubu, reportedly wanted the motor vehicles for themselves and their close associates.
Letters were issued to the purchasers, notifying them of the release. The letters were signed on behalf of the current regional minister by a deputy director, Braimah Murtala.
Before the regional minister ordered the release of the three motor vehicles late in April, the chief director had withheld the two trucks in the Department of Urban Roads’ yard from June 2024 and May 2025.
The yard is situated behind the office block of the UERCC. He further detailed soldiers to the yard to prevent the purchasers from taking their items away.
And he also parked the V8 Station Wagon at an automobile repair shop in the region’s capital, Bolgatanga, in 2024. The shop is found near a Shell filling station adjacent to the High Court ‘1’ block.
The car has remained there to this day, parked under a shed and labeled with UW 223-17— a registration number contrary to the GN 8928-12 on the UERCC’s documents.
After the regional minister directed that the three motor vehicles be released, the Man Diesel Truck and the Volvo Tipper Truck were released to their buyers.
But the V8 Station Wagon was not released to the buyer, Sumaila Mubarack. When a representative of the firm that auctioned the motor vehicles, Mohammed Hashmeen, went to the shop around the end of May to pick up the car on behalf of the purchaser, the owner of the shop, Issah Salifu, prevented him from doing so.
“When I went there, the mechanic told me that the chief director was the one who brought the car there. He said the director told him he bought it.
“And I said if the director told him he bought the car and someone else came with a receipt as the buyer, who owned the car? I learn the key to the car is with the chief director,” Hashmeen told Media Without Borders on Wednesday, 4 May 2025.
Chief Director questions Regional Minister’s letter
When this author gave the mechanic a call and explained the reason for the call, he refrained from saying much on the telephone.
“Somebody brought the car for me to work on it and he came with different stories,” he said and suggested that the rest of the conversation be done face to face.
Media Without Borders did not meet the mechanic for any further discussions but subsequently contacted the chief director for his comment on the matter.
The chief director confirmed that he took the car to the auto repair shop and instructed the mechanic not to release the vehicle to anybody who claimed to have purchased it.
He told the author of this report that there was a final report on the auction that had his son as the legitimate purchaser of the car. Asked where a copy of the report could be obtained, he said he did not know.
“They are not being honest. I don’t know Sumaila Mubarack. They should refer to the final report and see the name assigned to the V8. It is my son’s name that is assigned to the car. That car is not within the jurisdiction of the RCC; so, they can’t release it.
“Murtala (the UERCC’s deputy director) has just come. He doesn’t know anything. They just ask him and, then, he just signs. I gave the car key to the mechanic and I have told him not to release the car because the car is in my name,” the chief director said.
Directive from former Chief of Staff
The UERCC wrote a letter to the Office of the President on Wednesday, 27 March 2024, seeking approval to dispose of 14 vehicles and heavy equipment.
Those vehicles and heavy equipment were Komatsu Wheel Loader with registration number GE 3282-15, Komatsu Bulldozer GE 3230-15, Toyota L/C V8 Station Wagon GN 8928-12, Nissan Navara GT 7561-10, Volvo Roller GE 7187-9, HBM Motor Grader GE 3237-15 and HBM Motor Grader GE 3233-15.
The rest were Volvo Tipper Truck GR 8616-9, Toyota Camry Salon UE 1-10, Volvo Tipper Truck GR 8599-9, Volvo Wheel Loader GE 5729-Z, HBM Motor Grader GE 3235-15, Man Diesel Truck GE 366-15 and Volvo Motor Grader GE 5710-Z.
The approval was granted in a reply written on Friday, 31 May 2024, by the Chief of Staff at the time, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, and signed by a former Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of Operations, Emmanuel Adumua-Bossman.
The reply letter stressed that the vehicles and the heavy equipment should be disposed of by public auction.
It stated that “a serving officer of the office” who wished to purchase “any saloon car” for their personal use should be one who had never benefited from such sales.
The letter also introduced a professional auctioneer, Alhaji Mohammed Osman, as the official to conduct the auction sales for the government.
Alhaji Osman, now deceased, was the managing director of Mali-Bi-Vihira Mart, an auctioneering firm based in Tamale, Northern Region.
The auction
The auctioneer subsequently placed an advertisement about the auction in the Ghanaian Times newspaper on Tuesday, 11 June 2024, and Wednesday, 12 June 2024.
The auction took place on Thursday, 13 June 2024, with several interested members of the public in attendance.
But when the successful bidders went for their items, soldiers prevented them from taking them, and the regional coordinating council declined to give them the keys to their properties.
When the author of this report contacted the auctioneer on the matter last year, he said the purchasers were being denied access to their items because some big shots were interested in the vehicles and heavy equipment.
He explained that the chief director (Alhaji Inusah Abubakari) had invited him to his office for a meeting before the auction sales exercise took place.
During the alleged meeting, the chief director told the auctioneer that he and Stephen Yakubu (a former Upper East Regional Minister) needed some of the vehicles and heavy equipment.
The auctioneer said the chief director also gave him a list of the vehicles and heavy equipment they wanted.
The same list, according to the auctioneer, also had eight other names of some unidentified individuals to whom the chief director said he and Yakubu would like him (the auctioneer) to allocate some of the vehicles and heavy equipment.
Names on alleged list
The auctioneer showed a copy of the list to Media Without Borders.
The first name on the list was Adam Karim. He was to be given the HBM Motor Grader with registration number GE 3237-15. Next on that list was Solomon Ananga. The auctioneer was asked to allocate the Toyota Camry Salon with registration number UE 1-10 to him.
The third person, Paa Bruku Boateng, was to be allotted the HBM Motor Grader with registration number GE 3233-15. The fourth name on the list was Nicholas Aidoo. He was to be given the Nissan Navara with registration number GT 7561-10.
The next person was Stephen Yakubu (former regional minister). The Volvo Roller with registration number GE 7187-9, the Man Diesel Truck with registration number GE 366-15 and the Volvo Tipper Truck with registration number GR 8599-9 were written against his name.
The chief director followed on that list. He was to take away the Toyota L/C V8 Station Wagon with registration number GN 8928-12 and the Volvo Tipper Truck with registration number GR 8616-9.
The other four names on the list were Christopher Issaka, Edmund Bombande, Solomon Atarah and Surajdeen Saeed. The list did not mention the vehicles or heavy equipment the four individuals were to take away from the regional coordinating council. The auctioneer said he was told to share the remaining vehicles and heavy equipment among the four people.
Big shots failed to make agreed payments— Auctioneer
The auctioneer said the meeting did not end well for the chief director because he (the auctioneer) strongly declined to conduct a selective auction exercise, having been directed by the chief of staff to sell the vehicles and heavy equipment by public auction.
He said he offered the chief director and Stephen Yakubu an opportunity to bid for their preferred vehicles and heavy equipment during the public auction sales but they failed to make payments within the given time limit.
The auctioneer further revealed there was pressure on him also to purchase those vehicles and the heavy equipment for the former regional minister and the chief director with his own money.
He said he ignored the pressure and sold the vehicles and heavy equipment to different bidders who paid the agreed amounts before the deadline passed.
He explained that his refusal to go by the list against the directive from the office of the president was what made the chief director to detail a military taskforce to the yard to prevent those who successfully and “lawfully” bid for the items from taking them away.
Comment made by Chief Director in 2024
When contacted in 2024 on the matter, the chief director said he never had any meeting with the auctioneer concerning the vehicles and equipment. He said he did not present any wish list to him, and challenged him to prove the claims.
He, however, admitted to expressing interest in some of the vehicles but refuted the allegation that he asked the auctioneer to purchase them for him with his own money.
The regional coordinating director further stated that he assigned soldiers to prevent the vehicles and heavy equipment from being taken away because his outfit was not officially aware of any public auction exercise involving those motor vehicles.
“It’s true we detailed soldiers to the yard because we are not aware he did any public auction. Can you imagine? So, he should have access to my yard and do whatever he wants to do? The auction was done without the RCC’s consent and knowledge.
“So, we staff of the RCC are not entitled to the vehicles and equipment? Is that the case? Are we not Ghanaians? Are the public people who want the items more qualified for the equipment than the users? He sold to the highest bidders, right?” he stated.
Stephen Yakubu did not respond to a request made by this media outlet last year for his comment on the matter.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwboonline.org/Ghana
