Government Urged to Release Siaw's Assets

The family, relatives and former employees of the defunct TATA Brewery Limited have called on the government to release the confiscated assets of Joseph Kwabena Siaw, an industrialist, to his family for effective management.

The call was made at a press conference attended by a large number of family members, relatives and former employees of the defunct TATA Brewery Limited and people from Akwasiho, Mr Siaw's hometown, at Nkawkaw.

Addressing the press conference, a spokesman of the relatives and a close associate of the deceased, Nana Osei Pinaman, said a number of assets of Mr Siaw including the brewery, buildings, plots of land machines and vehicles were confiscated by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council in 1979.

He said though they had seen a number of positive moves by the government to release some confiscated assets to their owners, nothing had been heard about those of Siaw assets and urged the government to expedite action on their release.

Nana Pinaman said after the confiscation of the factory, most of the employees, who were relatives and family members of the Mr Siaw were relieved of their posts due to their relationship with him.

He said the only thing the government could do to compensate and appease the family, relatives and the people in the Kwahu Traditional Area, was to return the factory and other assets to its rightful owners. Nana Pinaman said the demand for the release of the assets had become necessary since the factory was indeed the heart of the Kwahu people, as the late industrialist spent most of his funds in assisting individual Kwahu citizens and the development of the Kwahu area as a whole.

He named some of the projects Mr Siaw undertook in the Kwahu area as the reconstruction and tarring of the 2.5 km road leading to Akwaseho from the main Accra - Kumasi road and the construction of the Akwaseho-Twenedurase road to link towns on the Kwahu ridge, which was abandoned after the confiscation of his assets.

He said he Siaw also planned to build a modern hospital in the Kwahu area for which he deposited a huge sum of money at the Eastern Regional Administration in the 1970s.

Nanan Pinaman, therefore, appealed to the government to take a bold decision and return the assets of the industrialist and those of others who suffered a similar fate to encourage investment in the country.