The Herald, has picked up credible reports that the besieged Managing Director of the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL), will today 17th February 2022 leave the company.
One Pamela Djamson-Tettey, has been penciled to take over from Yaw Kwakwa as the MD of a company whose facilities and management have been shared amongst family and friends of the President, Nana Akufo-Addo.
In what appears to be a twist of events, Mr Kwakwa whom the Akufo-Addo government claimed it had sacked, is rather resigning from the company after the media storm sparked by a leaked letter.
The Herald’s information is that although the government had announced sacking Mr Kwakwa, it was unable to give him the dismissal letter stating the reasons behind the decision.
Mr. Kwakwa was on tour at McDan Aviation’s facilities in Terminal One building with members the Roads and Transport Committee of Parliament on Wednesday, February 9, 2022, when a letter signed by Transport Minister, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah was leaked to the media to confront him with in an embarrassing manner.
Many suspect Mr. Paul Adom-Otchere, the GACL Board Chairman who strangely was not part of the tour that day, to have leaked the letter to the media. He was the one the letter was addressed to by the Transport Minister who has since refused to speak to the content of the letter bearing his signature.
The tour was a familiarization visit to the troubled McDan Aviation’s facilities to gather firsthand information on the confusion between Daniel McKorley’s aviation company and GACL. Mr. McKorley, was handed Kotoka’s Terminal One facility to operate during the tenure of John Dekyem Attafuah, who himself was sacked in January 2019 for an unknown reason.
The Deputy Minister of Transport, Hassan Tampuli who was on the tour that day with Mr. Kwakwa visibly appeared shocked at the letter dated, 4th February 2022 , and had stated that the President, Nana Akufo-Addo had on January 31st, 2022 asked for the MD’s appointment to be terminated.
Both Tampuli and Kwakwa appeared visibly struck and humiliated by the announcement, denied the dismissal and asked the media to rather focus on the reason for the familiarization tour of the McDan Aviation.
But The Herald has picked up reports that after the embarrassing episode, the government could not hand over a dismissal letter to Mr. Kwakwa, afraid he might sue for a huge judgment debt for wrongful termination of his appointment.
The government, rather through the board chairman Mr. Adom-Otchere went into desperate negotiations with Mr. Kwakwa towards getting him to exit the company on mutual note.
One thorny issue which emerged during the negotiations was lack of funds to pay Mr. Kwakwa his entitlements because Ghana Airports is broke and could not pay him everything.
At the end of negotiation, it was agreed with the board that Mr. Kwakwa would be immediately paid 50% of his entitlements while plans are put in place to settle the rest, later in the year.
It is thought that Mr. Kwakwa’s troubles started with his insistence that McDan Aviation owned by the powerful Daniel McKorley, a friend of the President and some of his relatives including Gabby Otchere-Darko and Nana Bediatuo Asante, does the right thing at the Airport. Indeed, Gabby is on record to be flying McDan’s private jet to the Central African country, Equatorial Guinea.
Interestingly, aside from McDan Aviation, who has been given the Terminal One building to run his private jet company, other close relatives and friends of President Akufo-Addo are operating from the Kotoka Airport and making good money from the state facility under some shady arrangements.
Frontiers Healthcare Service, the COVID-19 testing company owned by a Nigerian, Benedict Peters, is operating from the Kotoka Airport too.
Benedict Peters, is a friend of President Akufo-Addo, and got a special arrangement with the government which had him using staff and medical experts of Noguchi Memorial Institute including a relative of the President; one Prof. William Ampofo to facilitate his COVID-19 testing business tagged as one of the most expensive in the world.
He has been charging US$150 per a person arriving in Ghana from abroad whilst locals pay GHc300 for the test. Those found positive are quarantined at the M-Plaza Hotel in Accra, which is also mentioned to have a family connection to the President. There have been instances of wrongful diagnosis.
At the vetting of Akufo-Addo’s ministers, many of them, especially those in the transport as well as the health sectors could not give any coherent explanation on how Frontiers got to the Kotoka Airport to commence the testing procedure there.
Kweku Agyemang Manu and Akwesi Asiamah who were retained in the Ministries of Health and Transport respectively, also failed to produce any documentation detailing the government’s agreement with Mr. Benedict’s company.
Aside from McDan Aviation and Frontiers, reports are that the wife of President Akufo-Addo’s cousin and Executive Secretary, Nana Bediatuo Asante also has his wife, Femi Adetola is also running a facility at the Kotoka Airport.
Femi Adetola is mentioned to be operating a section at the airport for “Commercially important Passengers”. These persons are ready to pay anything to be offered a special arrangement upon arrival at the airport as well as departures.
Both Femi’s company and that of McDan Aviation are said to be owning the GACL colossal amounts of money.
One Mrs. Valerie Obaze, a daughter of President Akufo-Addo’s love affair with Virginia Hesse, who until last year was President Nana Akufo-Addo’s ambassador to Czche Republic with concurrent accreditation to Macedonia, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia, is also mentioned to be operating a Duty Free Shop at Kotoka’s Terminal 3 facility.
In January 2019, two years after father became President, her company RandRluxury took to Facebook to announce their presence at Terminal three (3). The post read that: R&R @ T3
*The doors are officially open at our newest store at Kotoka International Airport in Accra. Be sure to pass by if you’re flying out of Accra! You can stock up on skincare essentials before travelling (or heading home) and we can also help you put together authentic gifts for your loved ones!”
Interestingly, Paul Adom Otchere, a broadcast journalist and the host of Good Evening Ghana – a current affairs on program Metro TV, turned Board Chairman of the GACL, having served as a board member of the National Communications Authority (NCA), is himself a close friend of President Akufo-Addo, Gabby, Nana Bediatuo Asante among other members of the family revealing the extent to which the state-owned company and its facilities are not in the hands of state actors.
More to come!
