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Dr Kwabena Duffour- Majority shareholder of the defunct uniBank
Dr Kwabena Duffour- Majority shareholder of the defunct uniBank

3 Shareholders of defunct UniBank urge court to join A-G to suit

Three of the 17 defendants in a suit brought against directors of the defunct uniBank and others for the various roles they played in the collapse of the bank have filed an application praying the High Court to join the Attorney-General (A-G) to the suit as a defendant.

Dr Kwabena Duffuor II, Prof. Newman Kwadwo-Kusi and Ms Boatemaa Kakra Duffuor-Nyarko want the court to join the A-G to the suit as the 18th defendant.
The motion for joinder, which was filed on behalf of the defendants by their lawyer, Mr Yaw Oppong, on January 31, 2019, will be heard on February 12, 2019.

Affidavit

An affidavit in support of the motion sworn to on behalf of the defendants by Mr Kwadwo-Kusi indicated that the KPMG Report which led the government on to take over the bank was full of misrepresentations.

It said the report failed to take into account the future prospects of the bank and rather misled the government and the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to take over the bank.

According to the affidavit, as a result of the defendants filing a counter-claim to the suit, defence lawyers advised that the A-G be furnished with the notice of intention to join the A-G to the suit.

The affidavit further argued that attaching the A-G as a party to the suit would enable the court to “effectually and completely determine the matters of this suit in order to avoid multiplicity of suits, with concomitant expenses”.

Suit

The receiver of uniBank, Nii Amanor Dodoo, sued the three and 14 others on September 4, 2018 for breaching their fiduciary duties as directors of the bank and, in the process, leaving behind a GH¢5.7-billion debt.

The plaintiff is, accordingly, praying the High Court to hold the defendants jointly liable for all the loss uniBank Ghana Limited has suffered.

The other defendants are Dr Kwabena Duffuor, HODA Holdings Ltd, HODA Properties Limited, Integrated Properties Limited, Alban Logistics Limited, Starlife Assurance and Bolton Portfolio Limited.

The rest are Opoku Gyamfi Boateng, Owusu Ansah Awere, Ekow Nyarko Dadzie-Dennis, Clifford Duke Mettle, Kofi Kyereh Darkwah, Nana Boakye Asafu-Adjaye and Alex Gaddiel Buabeng.

Counter claim

However, three of the defendants the receiver of uniBank sued for causing the GH¢5.7 billion debt to the bank hit back last September.

Dr Kwabena Duffuor II, Prof. Newman Kwadwo-Kusi and Boatemaa Kakra Duffuor-Nyarko, in their defence, accused the receiver, Nii Dodoo, of issuing a defective report leading to the collapse of the bank.

In a counter-claim, the three are arguing that the BoG would not have revoked uniBank’s licence “but for the acts of misrepresentation and the rent-seeking behaviour of KPMG and the receiver”.

The defendants are accordingly seeking a declaration that the entire procedure culminating in the purported appointment of KPMG as an official administrator was unlawful, illegal and contrary to the prevailing and acceptable practice and custom of the banking sector.

Background

UniBank was one of the eight local banks that collapsed as a result of what the Bank of Ghana (BoG) described as “poor corporate governance and mismanagement of depositors’ funds”.

The bank, set up by Dr Duffuor, a former Governor of the BoG, was one of five banks merged into the Consolidated Bank, which is a 100 per cent state-owned entity, after their licences were revoked by the BoG.

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