A member of the Communications Team of the New Patriotic Party, Awal Mohammed, has described the ongoing dispute between Ghana Airports Company Limited and the McDan Group of Companies as largely political rather than purely legal.

His comments follow a statement by Ghana Airports Company Limited announcing the termination of its Fixed Base Operation (FBO) agreement with McDan Aviation Handling Services Limited over the persistent non-payment of contractual fees relating to its operations at Kotoka International Airport.

Speaking on The AM Show on JoyNews on March 13, Mr Mohammed said that although the matter has legal elements, the circumstances surrounding the dispute suggest strong political undertones.

He recalled that in the lead-up to the elections, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa had held several press conferences raising concerns about what he described as state capture.

“Okudzeto Ablakwa in his numerous press conferences and the things that he said about state capture,” he stated.

According to Mr Mohammed, the McDan Group of Companies was mentioned in relation to contracts linked to Terminal 1 at Kotoka International Airport.

“He cited McDan, one of the people who had taken a lot of contracts and had taken out Terminal 1 and so on,” he said.

Mr Mohammed added that it was therefore not surprising that Terminal 1 was shut down after the elections.

“So it was not surprising that in December, after they won the elections, they shut down Terminal 1. And they said there were some ground rents that he was supposed to pay. He cited $3.9 million,” he explained.

However, he noted that the company disputed the amount and responded with a statement.

“The company came with a pushback and a statement to say that indeed it is not $3.9 million. It is $2 million, and they had paid substantial amounts of that said amount of the $2 million,” he said.

Mr Mohammed further explained that the facility was restored for operations in January, but the issue later escalated into a legal dispute.

“So it was restored for him to start work in January. By May, they went to court. That is, Ghana Airports Company went to court, and they had a ruling that indeed they can evict him on that 16-acre land or 1.6-acre land that he is operating and developing. And he has his warehouse there,” he stated.

He said the company subsequently filed a notice of appeal and applied for a stay of execution.

“He also filed a notice of appeal and filed a stay of execution until we heard what happened just three days ago. So it's legal, but it's largely political. And that's the reason we are here today,” he said.

Mr Mohammed added that the company maintains it has paid a substantial portion of the ground rent.

“He is claiming that he has paid a substantial amount of money in the ground rents and a few other things,” he noted.

According to him, the company had also been served notice of an injunction pending the appeal relating to the May 2025 ruling.

“He was also given the notice of an injunction pending the appeal that they had done for the 9th May or 8th May ruling in 2025. And they defied all that and entered his warehouse and started demolition,” he said.

Mr Mohammed further indicated that the company had raised concerns about the terms of its contract with the Ghana Airports Company Limited.

“Now, he has raised a very important issue that in their contract, the eviction notice should be within 90 days,” he said.

“And even if there is an eviction notice, at least you should be given the 90 days instead of getting the interlocutory injunction on the 10th. By the 11th, you come out to really start entering into that property,” he added.

He argued that the actions taken could amount to a breach of the contractual agreement.

“It means they had breached their contractual agreement. And I think largely that is right, because you cannot just go give him the eviction notice. Within three months, he will be able to really move his things out of the place,” he said.

Mr Mohammed concluded by urging that the matter be resolved, warning that such disputes could discourage private sector participation in Ghana’s aviation sector.

“So this thing should be resolved as much as possible, because I don't think it is healthy for the Ghana Airport Company. Because if you do this to a private company, it serves as a disincentive to all private people who would want to partner with you to develop the aviation sector,” he stated.