16 million cedis car sold for 700,000 cedis

The Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) is yet to unravel how the circumstances surrounding the sale of a Toyota Corona saloon car allocated to Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu, former Presidential Advisor in the NDC administration, to his driver at a ridiculous price.

The paper’s investigation has revealed that the former Presidential Advisor influenced the sale of the car to his personal driver, Mr Kofi Oppong in 1998 at 700,000 cedis when the government valuer had valued it at 16 million cedis.

The car, according to the paper’s sources, was abandoned near the Ghana Telecom office at Dansoman just after January 7, 2000.

Documents from the Office of the President and the Driver Vehicle and Licensing Authority (DVLA) indicated that the vehicle was allocated to Mr Kofi Oppong from the Office of the President.

A letter from the Office of the President dated July 29, 1998 titled “change of ownership and re-registration of a Toyota Corona saloon car with Chassis Number ST 171-0076525” said approval had been given for the ownership of the vehicle to be changed into the name of Mr Kofi Oppong with House Number D74, Dansoman Estate.

The letter which was signed by Lt-Col Ern Mensah (rtd) on behalf of the acting chief of Staff was copied to the chief technical officer of DVLA.

Documents form the DVLA also revealed that, the ash Toyota Corona saloon with registration number GR 2149E, which was in the transport pool of the office of the President, has been allocated to Mr Kofi Oppong.

Further investigations indicated that the 700,000 cedis was paid into the Chief of Staff's accounts number 9225 at the Osu branch of the Ghana Commercial Bank in Accra on 29 September 1998.

When Prince Oppong, the transport officer at the office of the President, was contacted, he said the police brought the car to his office at the Flagstaff House.

He said the Minority Leader, Mr Alban Bagbin later called him on telephone to negotiate for the release of the car, since Mr Kofi Oppong had reported the seizure of the car to him.

Prince Oppong told the paper that, whilst the case was being investigated by BNI, he could not give much detail although he confirmed the story.

When the Minority Leader, Mr Alban Bagbin was contacted on the issue, he confirmed calling Prince Oppong on the telephone to verify the seizure of the vehicle since he had received reports to that effect.

Mr Bagbin explained that he received a call that the Toyota Corona vehicle had been towed away to the Flagstaff House for no apparent reason. It was based upon this that he called the transport officer for confirmation as to whether the car was truly towed away without the consent of the owner or otherwise.

Mr Bagbin further said, he advised the driver to take the car key to the premises of Flagstaff House, since Prince Oppong was demanding it. He, however, rejected the suggestion that he was negotiating for the release of the car.