The biggest legal case to rock Ghana that seemed to have traveled out of the jurisdiction in the United Kingdom, surfaced in the United States of America, and sneaked back to Ghana for its final leg at the Commercial court in Accra, this month, where the plaintiff mounted the witness stand for the nth time to defend his claim to 20 percent shares of the telecommunications company. The trial in America featured the cream of the lawyers of the US, among them the law firm of Bracewell Guiliani, LLP, the law firm belonging to the former Mayor of New York, Mr. Rudolf Giuliani. But yesterday, Mr. Richmond Aggrey, the Ghanaian investor claiming twenty percent shareholding in Scancom Limited, operators of Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN), was back in court insisting that during the period when he was pressurised to sell off his shares in the company, he tried every trick in the book, with the cooperation of his Lebanese partners to hide his shares, but he continued to hit a brick wall. According to him, he had seen the then Vice President, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills to explain to the then President, JJ Rawlings, that he meant no harm for the country, adding that some other personalities in government including Mr. Michael Soussoudis, the president’s cousin, were also approached to help in solving the impasse. Mr. Aggrey was responding to cross-examination conducted by counsel for Scancom, Mr. Benson Nutsukpui, yesterday; before the Commercial Court, presided over by Justice Ms. Babara Ackah-Yensu. With Messrs Felix Ntrakwa and Tony Forson representing Investcom, having concluded their case and cross examination of Mr. Aggrey, it was left with Benson Nutsukpui to finish with his cross examination. Continuing, Aggrey, a former Vice Chairman of Scancom, noted that he was directed by the then Vice President, Prof. Mills to provide his request in writing. Mr. Aggrey noted that he followed the advice, but it did not yield any result, as President Rawlings went on with his adversarial attitude against him. Mr. Aggrey insisted that he was forced to cede his twenty percent shares in Scancom, adding that when the then President Rawlings got to know that he was involved in the company, he (Rawlings) started to persecute him, until he finally left the company. The witness espoused that all the principal trips he had undertaken over those years were to support Scancom and its operations, including his mission to Serbia as Vice Chairman of Scancom. He emphasized that he was not only a non-executive director of the company, but he seriously applied himself to the service of Scancom, working from 7.00am to midnight. "I am more than a non-executive Director of the company," witness stressed confidently. Witness further noted that he did not intend disposing of his shares in the company since the intention was that Mr. David Hesse, the company secretary, was going to take care of his shares and interest in the company. Mr. Aggrey, who had business interests in several companies in Ghana and Nigeria, has sued Investcom Consortium Holdings SA, Scancom Limited and Grandview Management Ltd, for claims that his name had been removed from the shareholders’ list of Scancom Ltd, without any explanation. He is, therefore, seeking that the court orders the defendants, jointly and severally, to pay him his true share of dividends declared in the 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 financial years, in a manner which was proportionate to his shareholding, with interest calculated at the commercial rate. Additionally, he is seeking, among others, an order rectifying the shareholding membership of Scancom Limited, to include his name and to accordingly restore him to his position as a shareholder and Director of the company. Source: The Ghanaian Chronicle