On Wednesday, 27 March 2024, the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council (UERCC) wrote a letter to the Office of the President, seeking authorisation to dispose of fourteen unserviceable vehicles and heavy equipment owned by the state.
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 others 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.
A letter from the Office of the President
On Friday, 31 May 2024, the Office of the President replied through the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, to the letter the UERCC wrote in March.
The letter, signed by the Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of Operations, Emmanuel Adumua-Bossman, granted the approval the UERCC sought.
But the letter stressed that the vehicles and the heavy equipment should be disposed of by public auction.
And it also made it clear 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 from the chief of staff also introduced a professional auctioneer, Alhaji Mohammed Osman, as the official to conduct the auction sales for the government.
Alhaji Osman is the managing director of Mali-Bi-Vihira Mart, an auctioneering firm based in Tamale, Northern Region.
Subsequently, the auctioneer placed an advertisement in the Ghanaian Times newspaper on Tuesday, 11 June 2024, and Wednesday, 12 June 2024, announcing that the auction sales would take place on Thursday, 13 June 2024.
Soldiers deployed after auction sales exercise
The auction sales exercise took place as scheduled, with several interested members of the public in attendance.
The bidders who paid the agreed amounts within a deadline of 24 hours were given their receipts and told where to go for the vehicles and heavy equipment they purchased.
The heavy equipment (tipper trucks, wheel loaders, graders and roller) was kept in the yard of the Department of Urban Roads, just behind the UERCC’s office block.
The other items (the vehicles) were parked at different spots far outside UERCC’s vicinity.
When those who purchased the heavy equipment went to that yard, they met soldiers there. The soldiers told them that they had been instructed not to allow them to take the heavy equipment away.
Similarly, those who purchased the vehicles were turned away when they went to the UERCC for the keys to their properties.
When this development came to the notice of Media Without Borders, the author of this report spoke to some sources at the UERCC about it.
The sources said the soldiers were detailed to the yard by the regional coordinating director, Alhaji Inusah Abubakari, with a directive to prevent those who purchased the items from taking them away.
Auctioneer makes damning revelations
Media Without Borders took further steps by contacting the parties involved in the auction sales exercise, beginning with the auctioneer.
According to the auctioneer, the regional coordinating director and the Upper West regional minister, Stephen Yakubu, were interested in some of the unserviceable vehicles and heavy equipment.
Yakubu was the Upper East regional minister from 2021 until he was moved to the next-door Upper West region in 2024 in a swap reshuffle that saw his counterpart in the Upper West region, Hafiz Bin Salih, replace him as the new Upper East regional minister.
The auctioneer said the regional coordinating director had invited him to his office for a meeting before the auction sales exercise took place.
During the alleged meeting, the regional coordinating director told the auctioneer that he and his immediate-past boss, Yakubu, needed some of the unserviceable vehicles and heavy equipment.
He said the regional coordinating 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 regional coordinating director said he and the Upper West regional minister would like him (the auctioneer) to allocate some of the vehicles and heavy equipment.
How the vehicles and equipment were shared on the 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 the Upper West regional minister, Stephen Yakubu. 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 regional coordinating director followed on the 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.
Row and police invitation
The auctioneer said the meeting ended in an irresoluble disagreement because he strongly declined to go by that list, having been directed by the letter from the office of the president to conduct the sales by public auction.
He said he offered the regional coordinating director and the Upper West regional minister 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 regional minister and the coordinating director with his own money.
He said he shrugged off 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 led to soldiers being detailed to the yard to prevent those who successfully and “lawfully” bid for the items from taking them away.
It did not end there, according to the auctioneer. He said the regional coordinating director also lodged a complaint with the police in Tamale against him.
“He told the police he gave me a job and I didn’t give him his documents” the auctioneer said. “I told the CID officers that the chief of staff did not authorise me to give him any documents, and the police dismissed the case immediately.”
Regional coordinating director confirms he’s behind military detail
Media Without Borders contacted the regional coordinating director on Wednesday, 28 August 2024, for his side of the story.
He said he never had any meeting with the auctioneer where he presented the wish list he referred to and challenged him to prove it.
He said he expressed interest in some of the vehicles but refuted the claim that he asked the auctioneer to purchase them for him with his own money.
The regional coordinating director explained that he detailed the soldiers to the yard to prevent the vehicles and heavy equipment from being taken away because the UERCC was not officially aware of any public auction sales exercise.
“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.
Regional coordinating director claims auction revoked
He added that the sales the auctioneer conducted had been revoked by the office of the president in response to a petition the UERCC wrote to the Jubilee House.
He declined to share a copy of the alleged revocation letter with this writer. He said he could only show it to him in person if he met him at his office.
When Media Without Borders telephoned the auctioneer, he said the claim made by the regional coordinating director that the auction had been revoked was false.
“If the Jubilee House had truly revoked it, the chief of staff would have served me a copy. It is not true. The chief of staff said I should conduct the sales by public auction, not for RCC staff only. They bid for the vehicles but could not pay within the given time.
“If they bid and could not pay and I sold the vehicles and equipment to those who were ready to pay, is it my fault? I did exactly what the chief of staff instructed me to do. It is not true that the auction has been revoked,” he said.
Purchased construction vehicles seen in military-guarded yard
Media Without Borders could not reach the Upper West regional minister for his comment on this matter because the telephone calls placed to his number on Wednesday, 28 August 2024, encountered repeated disconnections from the cellular network.
When the author of this report later established contact with his official aide, Solomon Ananga, and asked that he relay the reason for the call to him, he said he (the aide) was not interested and abruptly ended the phone call.
A message requesting for comment on the matter was sent afterwards to the Upper West regional minister via WhatsApp. That effort did not yield any reply before the time and date of this publication.
Similarly, the new Upper East regional minister did not answer when this writer telephoned him on Thursday, 29 August 2024.
He also did not reply to the message sent to him via WhatsApp before press time. It is not immediately clear what his position is on this issue.
What is clear is that the thirteen people who purchased the vehicles and heavy equipment but do not have access to their properties are in distress. Their frustration is seriously worsening by the day as the situation enters the third month since June.
Soldiers were in the yard when Media Without Borders entered the place on Tuesday, 27 August 2024, to see the heavy equipment. Some of the construction vehicles were seen in a weedy area of the premises.
The UERCC’s transport officer, Iddi Musah, reportedly had monitored and supervised the public auction sales exercise in June. He is said to be concerned about how the purchasers are being treated.
Sources say the regional coordinating director has taken all the keys to the purchased vehicles and heavy equipment from the transport officer because he no longer trusts that he will not release the keys to the purchasers.
The keys, according to the sources, have been handed to another head of department at the council. The transport officer confirmed, when a relation to one of the thirteen frustrated purchasers engaged him, that he no longer had access to the keys.
More findings
At present, two of the unserviceable vehicles mentioned on the controversial list and are yet to be taken by those who bought them at the public auction are not in the UERCC’s yard.
Media Without Borders spotted them at separate mechanic workshops in the Upper East regional capital, Bolgatanga.
Sources say they were moved out of the UERCC’s premises hours before the new regional minister took over on Thursday, 18 April 2024. The sources say the new regional minister is not aware of the vehicles and they strongly suspect the vehicles were not mentioned in the handover note he received.
They are the Toyota Camry Salon with registration number UE 1-10 and the Toyota L/C V8 Station Wagon with registration number GN 8928-12.
The Toyota Camry Salon currently is at a mechanic workshop near the Redemption Centre branch of Assemblies of God Ghana in Bolgatanga along the Bolgatanga-Tamale Highway.
The Toyota L/C V8 Station Wagon is parked at another mechanic workshop around the Shell filling station adjacent to the High Court ‘1’ block in Bolgatanga.
The original registration number plate of that V8 has been replaced with one that has a different number— UW 223-17. The mechanics at that workshop confirmed to the author of this report that the car belonged to the UERCC.
A valuation officer from the State Transport Corporation (STC), Isaac Sabogu, had conducted some technical inspection and tests on the vehicles before they were moved out of the UERCC’s yard in April, this year.
When the author of this report brought up this subject during a telephone interview with the regional coordinating director, he said the vehicles were parked at those places for repair purposes.
Government faces impending lawsuit
The auctioneer has written a letter to the Upper East regional minister, drawing his attention to the plight of the thirteen purchasers.
The auctioneer forwarded a copy of that letter to the office of the president through the chief of staff.
A notice also has been served on the regional coordinating director and the new Upper East regional minister by a solicitor to the thirteen purchasers, Mohammed A. Tiamiyu.
Dated 15th July, 2024, the notice stated that the thirteen men were the rightful owners of the vehicles and heavy equipment, having duly paid the agreed amounts for the items on sale.
The lawyer said denying the purchasers “their right to immediate possession of their lawfully acquired properties” without justification constituted “conversion”.
He said the inability of the purchasers to take immediate control of their properties had not only caused them a lot of hardship and inconvenience but also had adversely affected their businesses.
The lawyer demanded the release of the vehicles and heavy equipment on or before Friday, 16 August 2024, and warned that he would resort to legal action against them without further notice to them if the demand was not met.
“If the above demand is not met as indicated, I would be left with no other option than to resort to Legal Action against you without further notice to you, which I shall do at an interest and great cost to you with all the accompanying consequences,” a portion of the notice reads.
That notice was copied to the Attorney-General’s office in the region and the regional commander of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF).
Political watchers have described the development as a mess.
They believe it can further make the government unpopular.
They believe it can dampen some campaign spirits because some of the affected purchasers are influential members of the governing party.
And they believe it can take away some votes from the governing party, with Ghanaians going to the polls in less than 100 days.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana
