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Opinions of Friday, 3 August 2018

Columnist: Cyril Duodu

Collapse of Sovereign, uniBank: 'Nana Addo dealing Duffuor and Ashantis heavy blows'

President Akufo-Addo President Akufo-Addo

The announcement by the governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, that Sovereign, uniBank and three other banks were collapsed and consolidated may sound reasonable and according to regulatory practices.

However a deep scanning of the turf revealed a lot of shenanigans by the Akufo-Addo controlled Akyem mafia against the down-trodden Kufuor faction in the New Patriotic Party and Ashantis in general.

The inclusion of Sovereign Bank, an institution close to the NPP is most intriguing. While Data Bank and Prudential Bank ostensibly Akyem owned banks are being fed to survive, the Akyem hatchet fell on Sovereign Bank in a Nana versus Kufuor factional tussle in the NPP.

The man behind this bank is the proverbial Dr. Kwame Acheampong-Kyei, the owner of Gemini Life Company Ltd, GLICO. The government and the Bank of Ghana knew very well the liquidity challenges facing Acheampong-Kyei's Sovereign Bank long before the fictitious collapse of UT and Capital Banks.

It was however mischievously left to revive itself out of painful sympathy because the owner is an NPP guru in the Kuffuor camp.

Unfortunately for him, the sympathy was a camouflage. He was to be 'killed' in the end no matter the circumstances. So while Ofori-Atta's Data Bank and Prudential Bank which were equally doing badly were being rescued, Kwame Acheampong-Kyei was left to scavenge.

It would be recalled earlier this year the National Service Secretariat wanted to impose a fraudulent insurance policy on unsuspecting national service personnel.

One of the former Executive Directors of the Secretariat went on Citi FM and blew the cover on the corrupt deal that it was a scam cooked by this same Kwame Acheampong-Kyei to dupe the personnel with the connivance of top management of the NSS.

This expose led to legal challenges by the personnel forcing its eventual withdrawal by the shameless proponents. It is now emerging that Kwame Acheampong-Kyei hatched the NSS insurance scam to raise dirty money to be able to recapitalize his Sovereign Bank to avoid liquidation.

His failure to succeed in the insurance scam left the bank paralyzed to date. One would have thought that his Sovereign bank could be saved like Data Bank and others but his roots emanating from Kufuor's camp has worsened his plight. He had to be 'killed' by the Nana Addo camp to continue the ongoing eradication of the Kuffuor camp's influences in Akufo-Addo's NPP now.



It is also doubtful if he would be spared the legal suit threatened against the owners of the unfortunate banks by the central bank. Mr. Acheampong-Kyei had further not helped himself in the matter of the first major corruption under the Nana Addo regime, the fraudulent sale of 5 million litres of 'contaminated oil’ at the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation company, BOST.

He as board chairman was accused by the NPP establishment of not trying to protect Akufo-Addo's Alfred Obeng Boateng, the BOST MD, who pulled off that massive fraud.

The revelation of the second fraud involving B5 Energy was seen as an attempt to bastardize Nana Addo by a Kufuor element. For the above reasons, Kwame Acheampong-Kyei must be shown where power lies. These insiders believe is just a warning shot fired at the Kufuor elements to scare them away from contemplating any thoughts of reviving their influence.

Similarly uniBank, owned by Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, an Ashanti is not spared the heavy blows of the Akyem mafia. It is unthinkable that the government that owed Unibank hefty sums of money would gather the moral courage to collapse it when the cause of its woes is the government itself.

The government borrowed from the same Unibank to finance the setting up of the collapsed Construction bank. Logically everyone can deduce that the Nana Addo government deliberately set up uniBank to go bankrupt in order to kill it.

They have made the bank a dog, gave it a bad name and finally hanged it. This is another clear evidence of destroying Ashanti business for Akyem business to thrive.

Above all, the ultimate beneficiary of these financial machinations is the corrupt Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta. His Data Bank is being protected massively to be able to swallow the local financial environment to give him excessive muscle to control affairs in the NPP in preparation to succeed the failed Akufo-Addo in 2020.