Editorial News of Friday, 8 March 2002
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(Weekend Agenda) - - As the nation awaits the reasons the Supreme court have assigned for granting the relief sought by Tsatsu Tsikata, one-time Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), which has consigned the Fast Track High Court into oblivion, Public Agenda can reveal that Tsatsu’s newly wedded wife, Esther, and personal aid, Quincy Kwasi Sintim Aboagye, live in luxury in Texas, the Southern States of America, where US President George W. Bush was Governor until he made it to the White House.
Esther, former wife of Mr Kwasi Baah Boakye, one of President Kufuor’s recently sworn-in Ambassadors, owns a mansion at 5539 Woodland Glade Drive, Houston. She also has a private office block at 11111 Wilcrest Drive, Houston, Texas while Sintim Aboagye is the proud owner of a $1.4 million executive mansion with wife, Shirley, at 5203 Norborne Lane, Houston, TX 77069.
According to Public Agenda sources in the United States, Quincy recently moved from a home between Belt 8 North and Rankling in Houston. Both Tsatsu’s wife, (maiden name Esther Cobbah), former Head of Public Affairs of GNPC and Quincy flaunt their wealth openly, sources Agenda spoke to said.
Quincy has a fleet of three expensive cars in his garage at home. He drives around in silver metallic S-Class Mercedes Benz 600 valued at $70,000. He also owns a $56,000 light brown 1990 model Jaguar and a Lincoln Navigator (Sur) valued at $54,000, on the American car market.
Not too long ago, a Government announcement to grant Parliamentarians in Ghana $20,000 loan to each Member of the House generated an uproar. Most Ghanaians argued that in a highly indebted poor country like Ghana, it would be too much to grant such services to members of the august House.
Meanwhile, Agenda sources in the United States and Europe attest to the fact that Quincy, until recently a sole representative of GNPC in North America, is a regular visitor to Europe capitals like London, Paris, Berlin etc, on business trips. He is said to accompany Tsatsu on all official trips in Houston when Tsikata, one-time law lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon, was Chief Executive of GNPC.
Public Agenda can confirm that Quincy Kwasi Sintim Aboagye was involved in acquisition talks with some Nigerian business partners for the acquisition of the Saltpond Oilfields. The acquisition could now be said to have stalled following the removal of Tsikata as Chief Executive of the GNPC and the loss of the 2000 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections by the national Democratic Congress.
A close ally of ex-President Jerry Rawlings, Tsatsu is alleged to be the brain behind almost all the atrocious laws passed by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC). Analysts say, he was one of the main brains behind the crafting of the Transitional Provisions, which were virtually smuggled into the 1992 Constitution.
Under Clause 34 Sub Section 5: “It is not lawful for any court or tribunal to entertain an action instituted in respect of an act or omission against a person acting or omitting to act, on the instructions or authority of the Provisional National Defence Council or the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council or a member of the Provisional National Defence Council or the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council and alleged to be in contravention of any law, whether substantive or procedural, in existence before or during the administration of the Provisional National Defence Revolutionary Council.”