Prof Kwame Serbeh Yiadom has accused Stanbic Africa Holdings Limited (SAHL), for allegedly purchasing the Union Mortgage Bank Limited illegally from one Alhaji Fattau El-Aziz, a partner with whom both have 50% shares equally in the company.
Prof Yiadom is therefore, calling on the Chief Justice to speed up the judicial trial between Stanbic Africa Holdings Limited (SAHL) and himself, on the claims to Union Mortgage Bank Limited.
“Why was a certificate to commence business given in his name to a company
without express endorsement by all co-owners – specifically myself”.
He made this known at a press conference organized to lay down the unimpeachable facts of how Union Mortgage Bank Limited started and was purchased through illegal means and name changed to Stanbic Ghana Limited.
“My decision to establish a mortgage bank as a privately-owned enterprise in Ghana dates back to September 1992 when as Real Estate Senior lecturer in the University of Lagos I approached the Bank of Ghana for authorisation by way of a banking license to do so. I carried out necessary research at the Balme library, University of Ghana, put together a proper application proposal and on 3rd September 1993 I invited an old friend Alhaji Fattau El-Aziz to join me as co-promoter to lodge a formal application at Bank of Ghana. Subsequently, and under the prompting of the Bank of Ghana, we incorporated the Union Mortgage Bank Limited under the laws of Ghana on 8th March, 1994 with Registration Certificate No. C54199 and became the first coowners of the company with equal shareholding of 500,000 each”.
Stanbic according to Prof. Kwame Yiadom, have bought non-existent shares from Mr. El-Aziz without due process.
“Stanbic Bank, is this how you go into a country and purchase a bank without proper
due diligence” ?
He further stated, “For sixteen years the company, as Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited, operated in shadow from the company laws of Ghana. Then an opportunity appeared during the digital conversion of the records and processes of the Companies Registry in 2015. Led by the Stanbic company secretary and aided by a staff3 of the Registry a new fake company was uploaded unto the company portal with the intention of presenting a different image about the company from the one I co-own. The goal, of course, was to remove all and any trace of information about Union Mortgage Bank Limited from the Registry. In fact, it was so comprehensive that there was nearly no mention of me in the website beside a line in the shareholder list. Indeed, it was as if the Stanbic brand had been in Ghana since 1994! However, the seemingly fool proof digital manipulation promptly unravelled during a routine public search of the Registry I conducted in 2019 exposing the massive record tampering”.
Prof Kwame Serbeh pointed out that, for twenty-seven years that he have submitted himself to the courts – six High Court and one Appeal – as a dutiful, responsible, law-abiding citizen patiently praying for justice, the JUSTICE enshrined in the Constitution of Ghana and respective laws that the nation has been told to live by.
“On 24th December 1999 the Bank of Ghana put the icing on the cake by issuing a second Banking License No. 163 in the name of Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited to the same company. I have no knowledge that the license issued in the name Union Mortgage Bank Limited had been suspended, withdrawn or cancelled. Furthermore, the new license was to the same company, my company, with Registration No. 54199, already with a banking license No 154. I wrote copiously to BoG without response – a tale of two licenses!”.
He added, “I am not a lawyer but I can emphatically say that what I have experienced just pursuing my stolen property is absolutely unconscionable. I can testify to the fact that fraud succeeds in this nation because it takes forever to punish it!”.
He disclosed that, the seemingly fool proof digital manipulation promptly unravelled during a routine public search of the Registry conducted in 2019, exposing the massive record tampering.
” After two years of fruitless pursuit after lawyers, EOCO, OSP, Police CID, etc. who all turned me down, a good Samaritan whispered to me to conduct a fresh search at the Companies Registry. I submitted a Search Request on 20 August 2019 and received a shocking caricature of a Search Report which was completely unrecognisable to me. The search report I received said clearly that there was never any Union Mortgage Bank Limited and that in 1994 a Stanbic Investment Services Limited is the one that was incorporated!!. Momentarily I was fixated to a spot while the world turned around me until my wife hit me back to the real world. She suggested we got into our car away from the gazes and digest what we had just been served. It was in the car that jubilation burst out – for in our custody was fresh evidence of fraud or crime that could, should, and would bring me back to court. Suddenly I had fallen in love again with the court. Getting a lawyer to lead me back to court became like the biblical proverb of searching for a pin in a haystack. By this time Stanbic Bank gatekeepers had gotten wind of the discovery and, somehow, every lawyer I approached in Accra first consulted them and subsequently turned me down! This went on for months until a young lesser-knownlaw firm embraced the challenge”.
The lawyers first action according to Prof Kwame Serbeh Yiadom, was a strongly-worded letter dated 25th March 2020 to the Registrar General to make immediate correction to the record or be dragged to court to do so.
“The Registrar-General, Mrs. Jemimah Oware’s response was instant in the form of an invitation to a joint inquiry meeting in her office. Unfortunately, COVID restrictions had started. The meeting took place on 28th April in her office at the end of which apologies were rendered to me. She ordered the fake digital information removed and replaced by the authentic record on that day. Additionally, she directed that a correct search report be issued in replacement of the previous one(Copies available)”.
He indicated that surprisingly, after such a brilliant tactical move followed with spectacular result, his new lawyer refused to carry the fight forward to seek leave to return to court.” I was, thus, literally back in the streets clutching evidence of fraud in my hand. My wife and I had to go into hiding and alter our sleeping residence frequently, with a little help from friends. Again, the turning down by lawyers seems unabated despite the damning discovery”.
Prof Kwame Serbeh further stated, “Finally, I resolved to make a petition to the Chief Justice and, on 16th December 2020 I received a letter from the Office of the Judicial Secretary advising me to get a lawyer and return to court. My new lawyer opened proceedings in court in March/April 2021. That case is in progress but facing incessant adjournment challenges”.
Below is the journey he have traversed trying to take back what he alleged is legally for him:
(a)S/No. MISC.152/97: Union Mortgage Bank Ltd. v Kwame Charles
Serbeh-Yiadom;
(b)S/No. MISC.2145/2000: Kwame Charles Serbeh-Yiadom v Stanbic
Bank Ghana Ltd.
(c) S/No. FTC.8/2001: Kwame Charles Serbeh-Yiadom v Stanbic Bank
Ghana Ltd.
(d)S/No. AC.94/2010: Kwame Charles Serbeh-Yiadom v Stanbic Bank
Ghana Ltd. & Stanbic Africa Holdings Ltd. (UK)
(e) S/No. MISC.152/97: Union Mortgage Bank Ltd. v Kwame Charles
Serbeh-Yiadom;
(f) S/No. OCC.18/12: Kwame Charles Serbeh-Yiadom v Alhaji Fattau ElAziz;
(g)Civil Appeal: S/No.H1/188/13: Kwame Charles Serbeh-Yiadom
(Plaintiff/Appellant) v Alhaji Fattau El-Aziz (Defendant/Respondent);
