Areeba Suit Adjourned

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, 02 November 2006
THE Commercial Court in Accra, yesterday adjourned to November 14 proceedings of the case which Mr Richmond Aggrey, a businessman, is claiming 20 per cents shares in Scancom Ghana Limited, operators of Areeba GSM.

The court, presided over by Justice Henry Kwofie, said it took the decision because Investment Consortium Holdings S.A. of Beirut, Lebanon, the first defendant in the case, did not receive the processes in time to enable it to file response.

Other defendants in the suit include Scancom Limited and Grandview Management of Texas, United States.

On July 14 the court granted Mr Aggrey an ex-parte order to restrain the defendants from going ahead to conclude a merger agreement with the MTN Company of South Africa.

Plaintiff’s statement of claim stated in part…. continuing, progressing and/or concluding a merger with and/or acquisition of Investment LLC by MTC Company of South Africa without taking into account and or providing for the plaintiff’s 20 per cent shares in Scancom Limited, will occasion the loss of his shareholding in the company by reason of the accrual of the rights of MTN Group as a third party."

Following the plaintiff’s moves, Scancom Limited on July 24, filed an application seeking to strike out Mr Aggrey’s action "in part or whole" on the grounds that plaintiff failed to adhere to laid down procedures in filing the application.

Scancom Limited had argued that Mr Aggrey did not take leave of services of the court before effecting the process on its co-defendants, Investcom and Grandview, who are outside the court’s jurisdiction.

But the court on October 20, ruled that although failure to apply for leave to issue the writ was "an irregularity", Order 81 of the High Court Rules could be used to ‘cure’ the irregularity and consequently ordered the defendants to file their defence within 14 days.

When the case was called yesterday for the motion to be moved, Mr Charles Puozuing, standing in for Yonni Kulendi, counsel for Mr Aggrey, told the court that his client needed some time to be able to respond appropriately to Investcom’s statement of defence.

Mr Larry Otoo, counsel for Investcom, at this point, cut im to say, "the situation could have been averted if the plaintiff had served the processes on us on time. We got it at 1.45 pm yesterday and responded to it this morning."

Mr Benson Nutsukpui, counsel for Scancom Limited, told the court that his clients were not happy with the reportage on the proceedings by a section of the media.

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