The 2024 presidential candidate of the New Force, Nana Kwame Bediako, has broken his silence on a US$14.9 million judgment debt being enforced in Ghana following a ruling by a court in the United Kingdom, insisting that the matter is still before the courts and that due legal processes are ongoing.
In a statement issued on January 23, the business mogul and president of the Kwarleyz Group said reports circulating in the media had misrepresented the facts surrounding the judgment obtained by Cola Holdings Limited.
Mr Bediako maintained that he never contracted any loan from Cola Holdings Limited and that no monies were paid to him personally by the company. “I have not contracted any loan from Cola Holdings Ltd, and Cola Holdings Ltd has not paid any money to me,” he stated, explaining that the transaction at the centre of the dispute relates to a loan contracted by Kensington Residential Partners 1 Limited (KRP 1) from the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
According to him, KRP 1 is jointly owned by himself and Azad Cola, the owner of Cola Holdings Limited, and he was therefore surprised when Cola Holdings initiated legal action against him personally in the UK to recover a loan he says was contracted by the company and not by him. Mr Bediako further disclosed that he later discovered that lawyers he had engaged in the UK failed to file processes in his defence, which led to the judgment being entered against him.
Following the registration of the UK judgment in Ghana, he said he instructed his lawyers to challenge its enforcement because it was fraudulently obtained and that enforcing it would be contrary to public policy. “I instructed my lawyers in Ghana to resist the enforcement of the judgment on grounds that the judgment was obtained by fraud and that its enforcement will be against public policy,” he said.
Although a High Court declined to set aside the registration of the foreign judgment, Mr Bediako said he has since directed his legal team to file an appeal and to take steps to ensure that the judgment is not enforced pending the determination of all appeal processes. He further accused Cola Holdings of abusing the court process, arguing that the company failed to disclose to the UK court that it had already commenced separate proceedings in Ghana against KRP 1 over the same debt.
According to him, the alleged concealment of this material fact amounted to fraudulent misrepresentation and misled the UK court into granting judgment against him personally.
Mr Bediako said he remains confident in Ghana’s justice delivery system and assured the public of his respect for the rule of law.
“I am certain that after all the processes have been exhausted, the truth will stand, and no amount of machinations will derail my commitment to contributing my quota to the development of Ghana and Africa,” he added.
