US orders Ghana to pay 70b cedis?

The Ghana government's properties in the United States of America stands the risk of being confiscated and auctioned, according to the Ghanaian Voice.

This follows a commanding order given by the United States of America government to the Ghana Government to effect the payment of $10 million judgement debt owed Delta Foods Ltd. The company is owned by Rockshel Kwaku Tei and he got his judgement in Ghana and US courts. According to documents sighted by the paper, this judgement debt has been outstanding since 1997, arising from maize imports during the El Nino crisis in 1997.

The US government is said to have invested $4 billion in the food security to ward off any possible effect of the El Nino.

The Ghana government in a similar vein contracted Delta Foods Ltd. of Rockshel Tei and his partners in the US to supply the country with 100,000 metric tonnes of maize to meet grain shortfalls that might have been caused by the insurgent cereal crisis.

The first consignment of 21,000 metric tonnes arrived in the country some time later within the contractual period. The Ghana government took custody but dragged its feet on payment and Delta Foods subsequently took the matter to court.

The refusal of the former NDC government to honour judgement debts slapped by both the High Courts and Supreme Courts led the company's US partner to take the matter to the US court to enforce the Ghana government's own court judgement.