Akufo Addo Sell Father's Hotel

Ringroad Hotel, for a longtime, a vestige of one of the Chains of investments in immovable property and other chattels inherited by the Akufo Addos from their late father and late mother is gone.

Ringroad Hotel, bequeathed to Mrs. Adeline Akufo Addo, the late mother of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has been sold to Societé Generalé (SG) of France the current owners of SSB-Bank Gh Limited for US$3 million (45billion old Ghana Cedis).

Ringroad Hotel for many years, a rendezvous of big time politicians particularly of the blue-collar hue and the well-connected in society was bombed in 1993 by unidentified persons following the NPP’s boycott of the 1992 parliamentary elections.

A certain Alhaji Damba, was said to have claimed responsibility for the bombing. The bombing caused damage to the roof and ceiling of the Hotel.

Before the bombing, the Hotel was being used as venue for most of the crucial meetings and public opposition of the then newly-formed New Patriotic Party against the autocratic regime chaired by Flt. Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings.

To date investigation into who had masterminded that dastardly act has ended nowhere. There were speculations however that the place was bombed because of its constant usage as a venue of opposition press conferences at the time.

Speaking on the disposal of the over three decades old Ring Road Hotel to SG-SSB Bank, Gabby Asare Otchere Darko, Director of the Danquah Institute and a close confidante of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo said Ringroad Hotel was a family business.

He therefore wondered why anyone would want to make its alleged disposal by the family a public issue.

“It’s a private hotel, so if it’s sold for whatever, what has that got to do with him (Nana Addo)?” He urged the Punch newspaper to confirm the story from where they got their information from.

The Punch learnt that the Ring Road Hotel was leased by the Akufo Addo family to SG-SSB Bank through an estate agent for a consideration of US$3 million.

The lease expires after 30 years but is renewable, the paper’s sources averred.

Societé Generalé, owners of SSB Bank intends to put up a US$22 million dollar seven-storey structure to serve as a one-stop office headquarters for its scattered department offices in Accra.