NDC communicator Wonder Victor Kutor has said Manhyia South MP Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah got more money than SIC Life Savings and Loans when he represented them, arguing that the figures raise questions about how much the company ultimately received compared with payments made to its lawyers and an auctioneer.
Kutor raised the issue while discussing the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) investigation regarding than the MP on New Day on TV3.
He said Ghc5 million was recovered for SIC Life, but according to the figures he cited, GH¢2.2 million went to the law firm while GH¢1 million was paid to an auctioneer.
“So if we do the deduction, the SIC Life will get 1.8,” Kutor said. He stressed that he was presenting the figures as the summary of the facts under discussion.
“These are the facts. I just want viewers to look. This is the summary of the facts that I hire you as a lawyer. Come and help me recover funds. Okay, we go, we recover five million. Then you get more than me,” he said.
Kutor, however, acknowledged that he could not establish from the information available to him whether the legal fees were paid directly from the Ghc5 million recovered.
“We don’t know if the payment came out of the five million. Five million was recovered. That was the amount recovered, bottom line,” he said.
This comes after EOCO investigates financial irregularities involving SIC Life Savings and Loans and Baffour Awuah’s former law firm, Sarkodie Baffour Awuah & Partners.
The MP has said his former firm was engaged by SIC Life to recover funds it had invested with the defunct Equity Savings and Loans, while EOCO has not publicly disclosed the full details of its allegations.
An Accra High Court on September 30 authorised EOCO to arrest Baffour Awuah and search for and seize documents relevant to its investigation. The court directed that the arrest be executed through the Speaker of Parliament.
Baffour Awuah reported himself to EOCO on October 1, accompanied by his lawyer Samuel Atta Kyea and other MPs.
