Who Owns Secaps Hotel?

A major legal tussle concerning one of Accra's best-sited hotels is taking place in the law courts of the nation's capital. SECAPS is the name of the hotel and the two protagonists are Mr. Smart Binite a Nigerian, and Robby Wijsman, a Surinamese, two partners in an investment gone sour.

In plots that could easily have been plucked from an American television series like Dynasty or Dallas, the case involving SECAPS has been going up and down the courts since the two partners fell out over money sometime last year.

In popular Ghanaian folklore, when there is a falling out between two men, it is either over money or a woman! This drama, the popular folklore notwithstanding, exposes yet again the fragility of partnerships in Ghana. Mr. Binite and Mr. Wijsman were once very good friends with big plans to develop businesses in the tourism sector, but today, things have so soured that all talk about investment is gone.

Mr. Binite, the man known by many people as the owner of the hotel is now in danger of losing his hotel. A ten-month jail sentence is already hanging over his head, which he has appealed against. Mr. Wijsman, at the time of writing was said to have taken over the hotel and sacked all persons who are there as "agents" of Mr. Smart Binite. As the plot thickens, Mr. Binite has also filed a suit on 29/9/01 praying an Accra High Court for "an order to eject the plaintiff, his agents, workmen, and others from the Secaps Hotel."

In a motion by his lawyer, Anthony Norvor, Esq, Mr. Binite has asked "...this honourable Court for an order to eject the plaintiff, its agents, workmen, directors, including Robby Wijsman, who have illegally taken over the Secaps Hotel property and driven away all the workers of the said hotel since Thursday September 20, 2001..."

The hotel itself was hard hit during the last floods, which devastated parts of the city of Accra. Floodwaters washed portions of the land away. Its ideal location near the Tetteh Quarshie Circle on the Legon side makes it easily one of the most strategically placed in the city.

Until litigation hit it, it was once a highly sought-after venue for conferences, seminars, and workshops. Now, the courts have to decide who owns it before it can get back to its original form.