Gov't To Issue Statements On Confiscated Asserts

THE MINISTER of Justice and Attorney General, Papa Owusu Ankomah, has stated that the government will issue a statement on assets and properties confiscated by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) military governments.

He disclosed this to Chronicle when the paper contacted him to know the government position on the matter after various appeals and petitions by victims and concerned citizens for the return of assets belonging to people like the late J.K. Siaw, B.A. Mensah and others who suffered fates similar to his.

Earlier, the Chief of staff, Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani, stated in an interview with the paper that the government is studying various petitions and appeals by victims on the same subject, which is very dear to the hearts of many Ghanaians.

He said apart from the late J.K. Siaw, a number of groups and individuals who suffered the same fate had petitioned the government for the release of their seized assets and properties.

Mpiani said the government was, at the moment, studying all the petitions on their individual bases and would come out with a decision. He did not however tell when the government would make its decision known to Ghanaians.

Meanwhile many Ghanaians have expressed their displeasure over the government's surprise silence over the issue, despite various petitions and appeals by concerned groups and individuals on the subject.

In separate interviews with the paper they urged President Kufuor and his government to be bold and come out with a decisive decision on the matter.

According to one of them, Mr. Kwame Omari Marfo, who recently returned to the country form the United States said, some of them had to rush to Ghana during the 2000 elections to cast their votes to ensure change in the country to enable the wrongs which prevailed in the country to be corrected.

He said most of them had started throwing up their hands in despair due to the seemingly long silence by the government on the matter - and therefore appealed to the president to act quickly on the matter to maintain the confidence majority of Ghanaians have in his government to correct the wrongs done to them.

"We know you deliver on your promises and since you promised to return seized properties to its rightful owners during your presidential campaigns in 1996 and 2000, we expect you to fulfill it," he pleaded.

The paper is in the process of investigating allegations that some powers that be are dissuading the government from acting positively on the matter since they have personal interest in those seized properties including factories, residential houses and plots of land.