National Organizer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kofi Adams, could not state emphatically if he personally purchased the five cars alleged to have been seized from his home by national security operatives.
The 2016 National Campaign Coordinator for the NDC in the 2016 general elections; who is livid over the seizure whiles he is away in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), says what matters is that, the cars belong to him because they are registered in his name.
It is believed the vehicles, two land cruisers and three pick-ups may have been seized following allegations that some officials of the previous government have misappropriated some state assets including vehicles.
When the Host of Citi Eyewitness News, Richard Sky, asked whether he owned all the vehicles, Mr. Adams said “I am the owner of the two land cruisers and a pick-up. They are registered in my name. If something is registered in your name don’t you own it?” he asked.
But when he was pushed further, he now claimed ownership of all the five vehicles.
“I just want to cut a long story short by letting you know that everything is mine because they are not all registered in anybody’s name. They are not registered in anybody’s name or it’s not as if I bought them for anyone to register them.”
When he was specifically asked whether he purchased the cars himself, he said, “Is the purchase of the vehicle also in any argument now? Richard; is that why you called me? Are we contesting the purchase of the vehicles?” he queried.
‘Let’s be concerned about the seizure, not the purchase’
According to him, people should rather be concerned about the unlawful entry and seizure of people’s assets in their private homes in the name of national security, rather than who purchased the vehicles.
“A state vehicle cannot be registered in an individual’s name. State vehicles they don’t pay taxes on them, so they can’t be registered in an individual’s name unless it is sold or auctioned after a period of time, then the ownership is then transferred from the state to that individual; but that is not the case here either. It’s not a state vehicle that I bought; and it is not a state vehicle that was transferred at any given time; so that should not even be an issue at all.”
How did you come by five vehicles?
Mr. Adams said in his capacity as a national officer of a major political party, coupled with his previous engagements, he believes he has the wherewithal to acquire five personal vehicles.
“…You have just counted the number of things that I do; and I will be surprised that you will think that a national officer of a political party of my calibre, should not be able to have means of transport to move around the country to work, and that an officer of my level cannot have operational cars to be able to send people around to work. People who have used those vehicles know what they use them for” he argued.
Mr. Adams, who wondered what the cars are going to be used for, said he will resort to every necessary and legal means possible to retrieve his vehicles from the national security operatives.
“What they are going to them; are they going to break them up so that if I drive them I will go and die? Are they going to plant things in them? Are we living in a country where anybody can come to your home at any time and take things away? One is a personal vehicle, the others are operational vehicles that people use for assignments; and one particular vehicle contains a lot of things that I use with a lot of information; and taking that vehicle out in my absence is something that is quite serious and we must all follow up to get answers from the government” he stated.
“There are many options; we report to the police or we take legal action. If those who have taken them realize the folly in what they have done and return the vehicles with apology, we will look at that, and I will make sure that anything in the vehicle is returned intact. And the action that I will take, there are a lot of options available for me.”
The seizure
Narrating how the alleged seizure occurred, Mr. Adams said explained that, before he travelled to the UAE last Sunday, some six officials claiming to be National Security personnel visited his House on Saturday in an attempt to seize the cars in his absence.
He said he managed to stop them when he was called at a funeral grounds, and later confirmed that the men were not ordered to carry out the act by the National Security Minister.
He said he found it strange to receive a call whiles outside the country on Wednesday that the same six men with others, had returned to seize his five vehicles.
“I had to travel to Dubai for the function, so I left Ghana on Sunday, only to receive a call that sixteen military persons and some police officers together with four of the six who came the last time and a DVLA officer with a machine, came to the house, got into the yard, and insisted on getting the vehicles out.
The DVLA official had a system that could check the genuineness of the registration when you enter the number of the vehicle; he did so according to the Youngman who was at home then, and everything clearly indicated that these were vehicles that had been properly registered and did not even belong to the state.”
“So the advice was that they needed to go back, but it looks as if the taste for seizing vehicles was so high, so they insisted the Youngman must bring the keys for them to do a test on a particular one.
He told them he won’t do that; but one of them used the rear side of his AK-47 to hit him, and so he was frightened. Once he was walking into the room to pick the keys, they followed him forcefully, and whether he was picking the keys, they picked the other keys and tried each car to find out which one fitted and drove everything away.”
Meanwhile authorities at the Ministry of Defence have denied sanctioning any soldier to carry out such an assignment.
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