Bright Mensah Bonsu, the man who received $1.5 million cash and signed documents purporting to sell a prime diplomatic property belonging to Ghana’s High Commission in Nigeria has finally been arrested by Ghanaian security operatives.
Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs made the disclosure in a statement; saying “We got him!”
The Minister noted that the said Bright Mensah Bonsu describes himself as a special aide to former Ghana High Commissioner to Nigeria, the late Alhaji Rashid Bawa.
“It is important to emphasize that the US$1.5million cash was not paid into Government accounts neither is there any record at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the cash was officially declared,” Mr. Ablakwa said.
He said documents reveal that Bright Mensah Bonsu and his collaborators had valued the prime Lagos beachfront diplomatic property at $5.3million and considered the $1.5million payment as the first installment.
The Minister said the outcome of the 2024 elections must have thwarted their plans.
“We are also investigating the circumstances under which Bright Mensah Bonsu was issued a diplomatic passport on October 18, 2023, by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government when from all assessments, he could not have been eligible for a diplomatic passport,” he stated.
“Bright Mensah Bonsu was not a staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Ghana High Commission in Nigeria even though he was often seen in the company of the High Commissioner.”
He noted that as they await criminal prosecution shortly, it would be interesting to see how Bonsu would back his claims that he acted on the instructions of his superiors, and that those superiors gave him access to documents on the property.
Mr. Ablakwa said this latest significant development should send clear assurances to Nigerian government officials and the Nigerian attempted buyer who had all desperately petitioned the Mahama Government demanding their intervention, that consistent with what they had always said, that, “we take this matter very seriously and will do everything in our power to bring the notorious criminals to justice and recover the US$1.5million.”
The Minister said the Mahama administration would not shield anyone who played a role in this grand conspiracy not only to commit crime but to dent Ghana’s enviable international image.
He said the Government of Ghana was equally determined not to allow this condemnable incident to mar their great and ancestral bilateral relations with Nigeria.
“We promised that justice will be done, we are keeping our word,” he stated.
“Let me state for the umpteenth time, no diplomatic property belonging to the people of Ghana is for sale — severe consequences await anyone who tests our resolve.”
