NPP Guru Busted For Fraud

A leading member of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) is being held by the Osu Police on the orders of an Accra court for allegedly defrauding a businessman and the Ahlul bait Islamic Institute of Ghana to the tune of one hundred and thirty five thousand US dollars ($135,000) in a dubious land sale.
Abdulai Baba Zakaria who contested as the 2008 parliamentary candidate of the NPP in the Madina-Abokobi constituency was arrested on Friday night at Madina Zongo after playing hide and seek with the police for about half a year. A warrant for his arrest was issued in October last year when it was discovered that he had runaway to the United States of America after he had succeeded in selling someone else’s property at Agbogba near Madina to the Ahlul Bait Institute of Ghana, an Islamic School funded by the Ahlul Bait Foundation of Iran.
The land which had an uncompleted school structure built on it belongs to the Crown College, a private school. Information indicates that in January 2007, Baba Zakaria who was the then Presiding Member for the Ga East Municipal Assembly and also doubled as the Managing Director of Bangams Company Ltd ,entered into a purchase agreement with Crown College to buy the property at a fee of one hundred thousand Ghana cedis (GH¢ 100,000).
While he had not paid a penny for the property and without the knowledge of the owners, Baba Zakaria sold the land to the Ahlul Bait Institute for one hundred and fifty five thousand dollars ($155,000.00).
He succeeded in collecting a total of one hundred and thirty five thousand dollars ($135 000.00) from the agent of the Islamic Institute, one Christian Clerk.
Our investigations revealed that officials of Crown College confronted the contractor who was working on the site on behalf of the Institute and ordered him to vacate the land immediately. It was gathered that Crown College officials said even though they agreed to sell the property to Baba Zakaria at GH¢100,000, the deal could not be finalized because the NPP heavyweight failed to fulfill his part of the deal hence, the agreement was abrogated.
Further probe revealed that just about the period Baba Zakaria received the $135,000; from the Islamic Institute, he bought a house around Asharley Botwe after which he went into hiding.
When the Islamic Institute tried to chase him for the money, he sneaked out of the country to the USA.
A report was logged with the police while the services of Interpol was sought to help track him down.
A little over a week ago Baba Zakaria on the blind side of the Police, sneaked back into Ghana and quickly went into hiding again.
But informants who had been on the lookout reportedly sighted him at the NPP head office at Asylum Down when he had allegedly gone there to pick up a nomination form to file for his candidacy to contest the Madina –Aboki parliamentary seat once more.
Upon this tipoff, the Institute asked the NPP hierarchy to produce him. It was alleged that his gang informed him not to show up at the party offices since the party was looking for him to hand him over to the police to avoid being dragged into the mud by his nefarious deal.
The Lead is informed that even though there is a warrant for his arrest, the Police at Madina refused to pick Baba Zakaria up last Thursday, with the reason that if they arrested him, his supporters in the predominantly Zongo community may attack the police.
A dawn swoop at his rented room at Madina on the Friday proved futile as he and his family allegedly had moved out. But luck run out on him when he returned to the house late in the night the same day and a team of police and military, who have been on the alert eventually arrested him.
He has since been in police custody pending a court appearance today Tuesday March 15, 2011.