SEGBEFIA DODGES COURT

Alex Segbefia - Deputy Chief of Staff 

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday December 13, 2012

An Accra Fats Track High Court has issued an order for substituted service in the case in which a businessman is suing Deputy Chief of Staff Alex Segbefia and four others for confiscating his Benz vehicle worth €42,318.

This follows the inability of court’s bailiffs to serve the Deputy Chief of Staff whom the plaintiff Patrick Sam domiciled in the United Kingdom accuses of supervising the confiscation and allocation of the vehicle.

Apart from Mr. Segbefia, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Emmanuel Vanderpuije believed to have been allocated the vehicle who also had substituted service, KAMP Shipping Co. Limited who are the shipping agents as well as Frank Bo Amissah of the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) have been cited in the suit.

The plaintiff wants a declaration of title to the Mercedes Benz 711D bus with chassis WDB6693632No39359 and an order directed at the defendants for the recovery of his vehicle.

He said in the alternative, the court should order the defendants for the payment of actual market value of the bus as at 2009 at the cost of €42,318.00 with interest.

He also wants reliefs in the form of a declaration directed specifically at Mr. Segbefia to provide an alternative vehicle as promised and special damages directed at GRA, Mr. Vanderpuije and KAMP Shipping Co. Limited.

Mr. Sam also wants damages for loss of personal earnings from business from date of arrival in Ghana to date of final judgement.

In his statement of claim, the plaintiff said upon arrival of his vehicle to Ghana he instructed a clearing agent to clear it for him but it had unlawfully been forfeited to the state and had to follow it up to Ghana to check the reasons for the forfeiture.

Plaintiff said he petitioned GRA for release and reallocation of the vehicle which was duly granted in a letter dated June 8, 2009 and added that at all material time, the vehicle was in the custody of the authority.

He said in the process of securing his vehicle he was informed by GRA officers that the vehicle had already been cleared by certain officials from the castle.

He said he later investigated to find out that Mr. Vanderpuije had been allocated the vehicle and the defendant paid a paltry GH¢3,940 adding that the action “constitutes a gross abuse of public authority and power.”

“Plaintiff states that the said unlawful sale was facilitated by the 3^rd defendant (KAMP Shipping) herein through its officers which is a clearing agency and the sale was done within the same period in which the vehicle was reallocated to the plaintiff.”

The plaintiff claimed that he lodged a complaint to Mr. Segbefia’s office who promised to replace the vehicle for him and was subsequently given allocation chip signed by Mr. Bo Amissah but they both failed to deliver on the promise.

He said that he left the UK for Ghana to pursue his vehicle and had as a result lost huge sums of income saying “Plaintiff categorically say that, the defendants are indebted to him jointly and severally for the reliefs endorsed herein.”