|
Political pressure kicked me out of
the country in 1999 -Aggrey
Accra, July 24, Ghanadot/GNA- Mr Richmond Aggrey, a
businessman, who has sued Scancom Ghana Limited, operators
of MTN, over a dispute over shares in the company, on
Thursday said he left the country for Nigeria in 1999 due to
political pressure.
He was answering questions under cross-examination by Mr
Felix Ntrakwah, counsel for Investment Consortium Holdings
of South Africa (Investcom), at the Commercial Division of
the High Court in Accra.
Mr Aggrey told the court presided over by Mrs Justice
Barbara Ackah-Yensu, that whilst outside the country, he
petitioned President John Agyekum Kufuor on the issue,
because he felt the same pressure that was used to get him
out of the country could be used to bring him back.
At the court’s last sitting, Mr Aggrey who owned 20 per cent
shares in the company, testified before the court that he
had to leave Ghana for Nigeria.
He explained that it was because he feared for his life,
after former President Jerry John Rawlings had openly called
him names in his speech at the Emancipation Day Celebration.
Mr Aggrey had joined Investcom, the majority shareholders of
MTN, and Grandview Management to the suit, over their
unlawful take-over of his 20 per cent shares in Scancom
Ghana Limited.
He said he disagreed with a suggestion by Mr Ntrakwah that
the speech by former President Rawlings neither contained
any threat nor put pressure on Scancom.
Mr Aggrey said he disagreed with counsel’s suggestion to him
that petitions he sent to President Kufuor, Head of the
National Communications Authority, and the Minister of
Communications, were never responded to because they were of
no merit.
Asked by counsel whether after sending those petitions he
received any responses, Mr Aggrey replied that he sent the
petitions at different times, and that anytime he did, the
company invited him for a redress.
He told the court that at a point in time, he was picked up
and detained by operatives of the Bureau of National
Investigations (BNI) for 18 months, without any apparent
reason.
Mr Aggrey, was however, quick to add that at that time, he
had no association with Scancom.
He agreed with a suggestion by Mr Ntrakwah that from the
time former President Rawlings delivered his Emancipation
Day speech up to today, Scancom has been operational and
added that management of the company took right decisions to
enable it to survive.
Asked by counsel what his role in Scancom was, Mr Aggrey
said as Vice Chairman and a Ghanaian Director of Scancom who
resided in West Africa, his duty was to stay closer to the
Lebanese Directors of the company, and to give them right
interpretations, and in general suggest to them the building
of the company, in terms of human resources.
In answer to another question by counsel whether he
transferred his shares in the company, Mr Aggrey replied in
the negative, his reason being that he was not comfortable
with the transfer arrangement.
He continues with his evidence under cross-examination on
Friday, July 25.
GNA
|
