Baba Jamal, Ghana’s High Commissioner to Nigeria.
A fresh diplomatic and legal dimension has emerged in the protracted River Park Estate crisis in Abuja, as Ghana moves to escalate the dispute to the ECOWAS Court following allegations of misconduct, document falsification and breach of agreement by Nigerian authorities.
Speaking during an interview with Joy TV, Jonah Capital CEO, Kojo Mensah said his company was taken by surprise by actions of Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), insisting that official claims that his firm failed to attend meetings were false.
“In fact, it came to us as a surprise. The CAC never wrote to us,” Mensah said. “They wrote a letter to the Attorney General, peddling lies that we did not turn up for the meeting.”
He challenged the CAC’s position by pointing to video evidence posted by the CAC Commissioner himself.
““The CAC Commissioner is fond of posting videos of everything he does, so we have the video which he himself posted on his CAC Instagram, showing our lawyers being present and also the representative of the Attorney General being present for the meeting,” he stated.
Mensah further insisted that his company’s ownership of River Park Estate is backed by extensive documentation, some dating as far back as 2012.
“The share certificates have been prepared. Transfer forms were signed by me and are sitting with the lawyers in Abuja,” he said, referencing an email dated June 27, 2012, allegedly sent to him by one John Tanley Johnson.
According to him, the share certificate—described as “the bedrock of the company”—was emailed on July 4, 2012, by the accountant of Adren Ogunmuirwa, with Ogunmuirwa copied in the correspondence.
“This is the share certificate they sent to us,” Mensah said. “These are some of the documents we shared with the Nigeria Police, along with a copious number of documents which established our ownership of the estate.”
He added that the company also possesses FedEx records linked to the transmission of the documents in 2012.
On the issue of possible legal action against the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Mensah said a final decision has not yet been taken, although concerns have been formally raised.
“We have not even made the decision of whether we are going to sue the FCT Minister for the breach or alleged breach of the agreement,” he explained. “They wrote to us after the FCT Minister made his pronouncement and asked us to preserve the agreement.”
He disclosed that Jonah Capital had responded by flagging issues with the termination clause of the agreement and requesting further engagement.
“We wrote to the General Counsel that even though we have commenced the exercise that we have been asked to do, we have issues with the clause of termination, and we have asked for a meeting to engage,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ghana’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, Baba Jamal, confirmed that the dispute has now assumed a regional dimension, with Accra formally involving ECOWAS after earlier attempts at resolution failed.
“This problem started before I assumed office in Nigeria as High Commissioner,” Jamal said, noting that he had earlier attended meetings where both sides presented their cases.
From his assessment, the High Commissioner alleged that vested interests were at play.
“What I can make out of all this is that some individuals are trying to push themselves or push their power to take over things that do not belong to them,” he said.
Jamal revealed that Ghana initially exercised restraint to protect bilateral relations with Nigeria.
“We did not want to escalate this matter because we did not want this particular case to affect the excellent relationship between Ghana and Nigeria,” he said, describing the dispute as “a simple business crisis” that had been complicated by “intransigent positions.”
However, he confirmed that Ghana has now formally moved the matter to the ECOWAS level.
“When I became the High Commissioner, we properly briefed Accra, and that resulted in an official petition to ECOWAS,” he disclosed.
According to him, ECOWAS officials requested comprehensive documentation, which Ghana is now submitting.
“As I speak to you today, I have signed a letter that is supposed to send the official documentation and details,” Jamal said. “Possibly, it will reach ECOWAS tomorrow.”
He added that the expectation is for a resolution without further escalation.
“We are hoping that we will be able to resolve this matter without it escalating further,” Jamal said, confirming that the dispute is now headed to the ECOWAS Court for adjudication.