AGC listed on six bourses - Yeboa Amoa

Upper West GES Accountant put before court for fraud

Elders cautioned and discharged for assaulting Pastor

US Court dismisses suit against Ambassador Assassie-Gyimah

Novotex Company raided by armed robbers

Publicity campaign on crime starts

Accra (Greater Accra) 7 Feb. 2000

Mr Yeboa Amoa, Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), told an Accra High Court on Friday that that apart from the Accra bourse, Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC) is listed on five international stock exchanges.

These are the London, Zimbabwe, Australia, Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges.

Mr Amoa was in court following a subpoena to give evidence in the case in which four shareholders are asking for the removal of the Board of Directors of the Company.

The court, presided over by Mr Richard Apaloo asked Mr Amoa and Mr Joseph Bentum, Acting Registrar of AGC, to appear before it, after hearing fresh submissions by Mr Tony Lithur, counsel for the four shareholders last Wednesday.

Counsel had made submissions relating to AGC's listing on the foreign exchange markets and the mode of registering shareholders in the Company's register.

The applicants, ADRYX Mining and Metals Limited and three other shareholders, that claim they hold approximately 4.2 per cent of the shares of the company are seeking an order from the court to force the AGC to convene an extraordinary general meeting to elect a new Board of Directors.

The applicants are praying the court to permit the sale of all, any or part of the company's interest in its mining assets.

They are also asking the court to restrain the directors of the company from entering into any agreement, contract or understanding, which may impair or substantially reduce the ability of any new board, that may be elected, to deal with the company's affairs.

Mr Amoa said the Accra bourse does not operate the Global Depository Securities (GDS), but this system is operated on some foreign stock exchanges.

In Ghana ordinary shares are listed on the Stock Exchange, while in New York, for instance, the Global Depository Security system is applicable.

Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) operate under the American Securities System so that investors, who want to buy shares in emerging markets, do so through repository nominees.

The nominees issue them with the GDRs so that the purchasers become beneficial owners of the shares. The nominees then insert the names of the purchasers in their books as beneficiary members.

Recounting the historical background of the AGC's listing on the stock market, Mr Amoa said when AGC was converted into a company in 1994, three offers were involved in the exercise.

Initially there was the Ghanaian offer for workers in the country and other ECOWAS states.

Also, there was the International offer for qualified investors abroad and later the Ghanaian price list offer.

In answer to a question by Mr Lithur during cross-examination on whether depositories, that are institutions, have any legal interest in AGC, Mr Amoa replied in the affirmative, adding that the company's legal title is vested in those institutions.

Led in evidence by the presiding judge, Mr Bentum told the court that, even though, he is familiar with the register of AGC, which, he said, contains names of all its shareholders, he could not tell off-hand the total number of shareholders.

Mr Bentum, who said he was making his first appearance in court, said even though he is aware that AGC was floated on other stock exchanges other than the GSE, he does not know the medium by which the company was floated outside Ghana.

Asked whether he has heard about the concept of Global Depository Receipts (GDRs), Mr Bentum replied in the affirmative, and said AGC subscribes to it.

Witness said even though the GDRs are not used in Ghana, the system is applied for AGC, which subscribes to it on the New York Stock Exchange.

During cross-examination by Mr Lithur, Mr Bentum told the court that he is not aware that AGC was floated on the various stock exchanges outside Ghana through the GDRs system.

In answer to a question by Mr Kwame Tetteh, counsel for AGC, Mr Bentum told the court that notices to meetings are not sent to GDR holders, and for that matter they can neither attend nor vote at meetings.

He further told the court that it is a nominee's name that will be entered in the company's register as a member of the company, if even a shareholder's shares are held for him by a nominee.

Mr Apaloo has fixed Tuesday, 15 February for ruling.

GRi../

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Erhardt L. Ofori, a 53-year- old Senior Accountant of Ghana Education Service (GES), in the upper West region alleged to have defrauded the state of 63 million cedis, was put before a Wa Circuit Court on Friday.

His plea was not taken and he was remanded in custody until 22 February.

The court presided over by Mr Ziblim Imoro heard that the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) at Wa last month received information that some one at the GES Regional Office had forged payment vouchers totalling 63 million cedis.

The amount was to be used for the fumigation of five schools in Wa.

The SFO together with the Wa Police immediately began investigations and the accused was arrested on 2 February.

The prosecution pleaded with the tribunal to remand the suspect in custody to enable the Police and the SFO to conduct thorough investigations since it is believed many people were involved in the deal.

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A Tarkwa Circuit Court has cautioned seven Elders of the Apostolic Reform Church at Nsuta-Wassa, near Tarkwa, for assaulting Pastor Stephen Mensah of the church.

They are Emmanuel Ofori Tettey, Isaac Kpakpoe Ofori Tettey, Samuel Okoe Tettey, Gladys Tettey, Isaac Kwesi Mathews, Beatrice Addy and Rebecca Addy.

Chief Inspector Lydia Vondee told the court presided over by Mr. Isaac Lartey-Young that pastor Mensah is in charge of the church while the accused were members.

She said the accused, broke away and started their church at Kwaminakrom, near Tarkwa.

The Prosecutor said on 16 January 2000, the accused besieged the church while Pastor Mensah was preaching and pounced on him, pushed him around until a member of the congregation went to his rescue.

Mr. Lartey-Young explaining said the sentence was to facilitate arbitration efforts by members of the church.

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Accra (Greater Accra), 8^th February 2000

A court in the United States has dismissed a suit brought against Naval Captain Baffour Assassie-Gyimah, Ghana's Ambassador to Burkina Faso, by Mr. Bawol Cabiri, a former Trade Counsellor at the Ghana Permanent Mission in New York.

Mr. Cabiri had sued Capt Assassie-Gyimah for five million dollars for alleged torture and mistreatment during his arrest and interrogation in connection with the "Nobistor Affair" of the mid-1980s.

A jury of eight U.S citizens on February two unanimously returned a verdict of "innocent" in favour of Capt Assassie-Gyimah, a fax report from the Mission to the Ghana News Agency on Monday said.

The jury said, "on the basis of all the evidence adduced, Mr. Bawol Cabiri was never tortured in Ghana,"

It further found that "Mr. Cabiri fabricated the torture story to make money, as he had done in a previous case involving a fraudulent insurance claim in an automobile accident."

Mr. Cabiri, who was until October 1986 Ghana's Trade Counsellor in New York, was suspected of involvement in an attempted overthrow of the government by mercenaries in what became known as the "Nobistor Affair."

"His role was to organise the purchase of arms and serve as liaison for the recruitment of mercenaries," the report said.

In order not to compromise national security, the government decided not to prosecute Cabiri, but retired him from the Civil Service.

He refused to vacate the official bungalow in New York, alleging that his retirement was unlawful.

To support this, he claimed that he was tortured while in custody during preliminary investigation in Ghana and named Capt Assassie-Gyimah, then in charge of the investigations as the one who "supervised the torture".

Consequently Mr. Cabiri's lawyers served Capt Assassie-Gyimah with a writ for five million dollars, when he visited New York to give evidence for the government in connection with the former Counsellor's refusal to vacate his bungalow.

The report said preliminary objections by Capt Assassie-Gyimah to the jurisdiction of a US court were rejected.

This was misrepresented by the US-based "African Observer" and later, the "Free Press" in Ghana that the court had found Capt. Assassie-Gyimah "guilty of the torture allegations and that he should be sent to the US for trial, otherwise the government's properties there will be seized."

In a consequential decision, the presiding judge, Justice Allen Hellerstein, ruled that it was wrong in law for the previous judge, Justice Schwartz to have overruled the preliminary objections.

"In his view, the case against Capt. Assassie-Gyimah should have been thrown out long ago and apologised to him for the time and expense he had incurred in the case."

Lawyers Reid Khan and Ms Lauren Topelson were counsels for Capt. Assassie-Gyimah while Mr. Cabiri was represented by three lawyers led by Mr. Scof Kamber.

GRi

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Koforidua (Eastern Region), 8^th February 2000

About 29 armed robbers in military uniforms broke into the offices of Nkawkaw Novotex Company Limited in Koforidua and made away with cash totalling 1.8 million cedis on Friday February four.

The armed robbers allegedly beat up the four night watchmen on duty and forced their way into the offices of the cashier and the Export Manager and stole the money in their safes.

A statement signed by Chief Inspector Jonathan Kwabena Abban, Eastern Regional Police Public Relations Officer at Koforidua on Monday, said the four night watchmen -Atinga Frafra, Alhassan Grushie, Azure Frafra and Kwabena Grushie - who were treated and discharged at the Holy Family Hospital at Nkawkaw, are helping the police in their investigations.

No arrest has so far been made. The police are investigating.

GRi

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Cape Coast (Central Region), 8^th February 2000

The Central Region branch of the Information Services Department and the Ghana Police Service have started an intensive publicity campaign to mobilise the public to assist the security agencies to combat crime.

The three-week campaign will cover 300 towns and villages within the region.

A statement issued in Cape Coast by the Regional Information Officer, Mr. J.K. Aduku, said there would be film shows alongside the campaign on the "recent crime wave in the country".

During the period, the public would be educated on how to combat crime and what assistance to give to the security agencies to help them to combat it.

The public would be given telephone numbers of the security agencies to enable them to give reliable information to the police.

GRi

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