Friday, May 30, 2008

JJ's threats forced me out

May 8, 2008 (Second Lead Story)

A VIDEO recording of former President J.J. Rawlings’s attack on the personality of Mr Richmond Aggrey, a businessman who has sued Scancom Ghana Limited, operators of MTN, over a shareholding dispute, was played at the Commercial Court in Accra yesterday.
In the recording, former President Rawlings had accused Mr Aggrey of ripping Nigerians off their money and had returned home to Ghana with the same intention.
Addressing members of the Diplomatic Corps, chiefs, Africans and African-Americans in the Diaspora, foreign dignitaries and members of the public on state television on Emancipation Day in the first week of August 1999, Mr Rawlings had said Mr Aggrey was a corrupt man who had returned with economic power and “currently had 20 per cent shares in a telecommunications enterprise”.
The video was shown at the instance of Mr Aggrey, who has sued over unlawful take-over of his 20 per cent shares in Scancom Ghana Limited.
Also joined in the suit are Investment Consortium Holdings, SA (Investcom), the majority shareholders of MTN, and Grandview Management.
Mr Aggrey showed the video to the fully packed courtroom to buttress his claim that he had been forced to pull out of the company because of former President Rawlings’s interference and threats which had the potential of collapsing the company.
According to Mr Aggrey, who was then the Vice-Chairman of Scancom, following the continuous threats, he was advised by the other shareholders to pull out and instead nominate someone to represent him.
He said following those developments, he nominated his cousin to hold his shares because his continued stay in the company at the time was seen as a risk to the company’s growth.
In the video recording, Mr Rawlings had specifically referred to Mr Aggrey as being corrupt and had expressed the hope that he (Mr Aggrey) was not related to the late statesman, Dr Kwegyir Aggrey.
He had accused Mr Aggrey of investing virtually nothing in Scancom and yet succeeding in amassing wealth.
Dressed in African attire and guarded by the late WOI Tetteh, former President Rawlings had informed the fully packed auditorium that Mr Aggrey had gone round informing people that he (former President Rawlings) had only two years to leave office and that he (Mr Aggrey) knew the Inspector-General of Police and other top government officials.
He also accused Mr Aggrey of maligning him and the then First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, with the hope of achieving political goals elsewhere.
The case had to be adjourned to May 15, 2008 as a result of poor sound quality which was experienced midway through the viewing.
Mr Aggrey, who is currently being led by his counsel, Mr Yonny Kulendi, to give his evidence-in-chief, is expected to present another recording with a better sound quality on the next adjourned date.
He told the court that he usually taped state functions because of the cultural displays which accompanied them and said it was during one of such recordings that former President Rawlings openly expressed his disdain and hatred towards him (Mr Aggrey).
He said he was shocked to see himself being put on the negative spotlight on a live programme which was being covered by both local and international media.
According to Mr Aggrey, he was overly shocked because it had been rumoured all along that former President Rawlings wanted him out of Scancom and “for the first time in the public domain I was the subject of discussion”.
He said in 1998 he was the Chairman of the board of directors which appointed Mr Ahmed Farouk, who was then the Financial Controller of Scancom, as the Managing Director of the company.
According to him, Scancom had 7,000 initial subscribers when it started operations in 1996.
Counsel for Investcom, Mr Felix Ntrakwa, had objected to the screening of the video recording, explaining that it was of no essence, but Mr Kulendi had objected and said it was of extreme essence to Mr Aggrey because he (Mr Aggrey) sought to establish that he had pulled out of Scancom because of former President Rawlings.
Mr Aggrey continues with his evidence-in-chief on May 15, 2008.
Mr Aggrey began giving evidence on April 28, 2008, following the non-attainment of a settlement between himself and the three defendants at a pre-trial conference under commercial court rules, resulting in the matter being referred for trial.
He and the defendants went into pre-trial conference following another court’s ruling on Thursday, December 6, 2007 which restrained Investcom from seeking arbitration in the matter.
Investcom was seeking arbitration in the London Court of Arbitration but Mr Kulendi, on behalf of Mr Aggrey, filed an application for interlocutory injunction restraining Investcom from further proceeding with the arbitration.
After the collapse of the talks at the pre-trial conference, Investcom filed another application to stay execution of the court’s decision to stop it from going ahead with arbitration in London but that application was also thrown out on April 4, 2008.
In November 2006, Scancom filed an appeal challenging the Commercial Court’s dismissal of its application to strike out Mr Aggrey’s suit.
The applicant had prayed the Court of Appeal to set aside the lower court’s ruling and accordingly strike out the plaintiff’s writ of summons for non-compliance with a section of the new High Court procedure rules but the Court of Appeal dismissed the application and accordingly upheld the Commercial Court’s decision.
Scancom filed another application praying the Commercial Court to stay proceedings in the substantive matter, pending the outcome of the appeal but that application was also dismissed.
The Commercial Court in Accra, on October 20, 2006, dismissed a motion filed by Scancom which prayed the court to strike out a writ of summons filed by Mr Aggrey against Scancom and the two other defendants for non-compliance with the High Court’s rules.
The plaintiff sued Investcom, the majority shareholder in Scancom, and Grandview Management Limited when Scancom decided to engage in a merger deal with MTN Incorporated of South Africa.
The deal has, however, been concluded, following the transfer of all shares in Scancom to MTN.
That was after a High Court order on July 14, 2006 which restrained Scancom and other respondents from "continuing, progressing and or concluding the merger with and/or acquisition of Investment Consortium Holdings by MTN Company of South Africa without taking into account and/or providing for the plaintiff's 20 per cent shares in Scancom Limited".
The closure of the acquisition, according to Mr Aggrey, would occasion the loss of his shareholding in the company by reason of the accrual of the rights of the MTN Group as a third party.
Mr Aggrey's contention was that his name had been removed from the shareholders’ list of Scancom without any explanation, adding that the particulars of the directors and shareholders of Scancom obtained from the Registrar General's Department, dated June 2, 2006, and signed by Mr K.A. Ohene-Obeng, a Chief State Attorney, for the Registrar of Companies, showed that Mr Aggrey's name was not included in the shareholders’ list.
It said the onus was on the company to explain how Mr Aggrey ceased to be a shareholder.
In his substantive writ, Mr Aggrey was claiming against the defendants, jointly and severally, an order directed to Scancom to pay him his true dividends declared from the 2000 to 2005 financial years.
He also sought the rectification of the membership of Scancom Ltd to include his name and restore him to his position as a shareholder and director of the company.

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