Two former ministers of state in a tussle

Two former Ministers of State are fighting over the ownership of a government divested company that one of them used a front man to purchase for them.

Mr Ibrahim Adam, former Minister of Food and Agriculture in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration and Mr Adam Kaleem, former Deputy Secretary of Agriculture in charge of Northern Region in the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) era, are at war over the ownership of the divested State Fishing Corporation at Tamale and Yendi.

Mr Adam used the name Hakson Construction Company to jointly buy the State Fishing Corporation in Tamale and Yendi with Mr Kaleem at 46 million cedis in 1994 and renamed it KADA Investments.

Mr Kaleem went to the Office of the Ghana News Agency in Tamale to complain that Mr Adam gave instructions to his cronies to organise armed groups to lock him out claiming that he has no shares in the company.

Documents made available to the GNA, however, showed that Mr Kaleem has initial 10 per cent shares while Hakson Construction Company has 90 per cent.

One Eric Nelson fronted for Mr Adam and signed the documents on his behalf. Mr Adam allegedly hid his association with Hakson Construction Company when the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) was investigating him.

Mr Kaleem said though Mr Adam paid 27.6 million cedis; he also paid 20 million cedis in addition to using his bank loan to renovate the building, which was almost collapsing with the understanding that his shares would be upgraded accordingly.

He said it was only two weeks ago that Mr Adam signed a letter as the Chairman of KADA Board dismissing him as the Managing Director of the company.

The letter challenged him to prove his ownership of shares in the company.

Mr Kaleem showed the GNA documents on the acquisition of the company indicating that he signed and took delivery of the company and renovated it alone.

He said Mr Adam used the name of the company to register a fishing vessel he bought adding: "It was only a few months ago that I got to know about the vessel when the Internal Revenue Service wanted to know about its operations."

Mr Adam told the GNA in Accra that the Board of KADA dismissed Mr Kaleem for mismanagement and gross insubordination.

He said when Mr Kaleem was asked at a meeting of the Board to account for his stewardship, he became angry and walked out. Mr Ibrahim Yakubu Hardy, Mr Eric Nelson and Mr Adam, all directors of the company, signed the letter of dismissal.

Mr Adam said Mr Kaleem was offered 10 per cent of the shares but he has not paid for them.

He said there was nothing illegal about using proxies and challenged Mr Kaleem to go to court.