Dramatic Twist in Battle Over Ownership

... Mpiani's niece fires back

Mr. Osei Asibey- Anokye the returnee from America who alleged that he was evicted from his house at East Legon with the connivance of the Chief of Staff, Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani, could well be telling lies, at least about owning the house.

His wife Mrs. Regina Asibey-Anokye has debunked his claim saying her husband did not contribute a pesewa towards its construction. It was after she bought the plot and was preparing the documents that she added his name.

"Look he did not even know the location of the house until I took him there," she told The Chronicle in Accra on Monday.

Mrs. Asibey-Anokye, who said she returned home last week on hearing about her husband's claims, admitted that their marital relations were strained. She said Asibey-Anokye told another lie when he said he had given their home in New Jersey, South Orange in the US to her.

Mrs. Asibey-Anokye, also known as Regina Boateng Sarpong alleged that Asibey-Anokye secretly sold their New Jersey house and vanished to Ghana.

"I did not know he had sold the house and it was just left with me signing the final documents which I couldn't read through. He sold the house for $150,000 and re-mortgaged it for $245,000."

On the East Legon house, Mrs. Asibey-Anokye said she bought the land in 1994 unknown to her husband, during a visit back home from the USA.

She added his name, did photocopies of the original documents and took the photocopies back with her to the USA to inform her husband of the project she was undertaking.

"I wrote his name on the documents because he was my husband and presented to him the photo copies of the document, and that was when he knew about the house," Regina told Chronicle.

She explained that in 1999, she had an accident and after a major brain surgery she was compensated with some money, part of which she used to construct the building in East Legon.

"We had both a joint account and separate accounts. It was my money I used from my compensation. He did not contribute a cent to the building," Mrs. Asibey-Anokye said.

How Asibey-Anokye entered the house

On December 1, 2002, Regina continued, Osei left the USA after he had packed their entire household items from the house (this case is also said to be pending before a US court) and came down to Ghana with the photocopies of the document.

She said all this while, her husband was trying to falsify the documents to the building and when he had succeeded, he moved into the house in order to have a firm grip on it.

On June 15, 2003, Regina said, she received a call from her brothers - whom she had asked to stay in the house - that Asibey-Anokye had taken them to the police station at Legon, describing them as squatters who threatened to kill him when he asked them to leave the house.

She further said the police told the boys to leave the house and that if indeed it was true as they had claimed, that Osei was their brother- in-law, then they should wait for her to come down.

She said they complied and moved into a nearby house, but Asibey-Anokye was still unhappy seeing them around the area.

Mrs. Asibey-Anokye, with her mother Madam Beatrice Adae at her side during the interview, said her husband came with a truck to remove the household items from the house, but the vehicle got stuck in mud. Her brothers who were still hovering around the area, went to see what was going on.

He had allegedly broken the door locks, replaced them and was on the verge of moving away with the household items, which Regina said she had shipped at the cost of $2,340, to an unknown destination.

This was when her brothers alerted their mother (Beatrice Adae) who called on her brother Mr. Mpiani, the Chief of Staff for help. Madam Adae confirmed this herself.

On July 10, Chronicle carried the story about Asibey-Anokye's eviction from the house he claimed was his. The story under the headline: "The return to dark days, Castle power on display," narrated the circumstances under which armed police personnel on June 25, 2003 stormed the house of Mr. Asibey-Anokye, who had returned from his 23 years' sojourn in the USA and threw him out.

Mr. Asibey-Anokye had told The Chronicle that on that day eight armed police personnel he alleged were acting on the instructions of Mr. Mpiani, and DSP Nana Bediako, the second in command of the castle police, forcibly threw him out of his house at Adjiringono, East Legon, a suburb of Accra, and have since taken over his house.

Both Mr. Mpinai and DSP Bediako have denied their involvement in the incident.

Mr. Asibey-Anokye said he had sent a petition to President J. A. Kufuor through his lawyers. He alluded to a marital problem between him and his wife, saying this had caused him to give their house in the USA to his wife to come down to Ghana "to have my peace of mind."

Regina said she is now saddled with caring for her two children, aged 10 and 14 as well as paying off the huge debt her husband has left her in the US.

She showed Chronicle testimonies written by their neighbours who saw and helped Asibey-Anokye to move the things away from their house, as well as sighted police statements made by the couple at the South Orange police department in New Jersey.