An uneasy calm is hovering around the Command Headquarters of the Ghana Armed Forces in Burma Camp in Accra, following the disappearance of over $300,000 from its foreign coffers.
The disappearance of the cash, meant for the payment of soldiers on peacekeeping missions, has led to the arrest of Captain Daniel Nikyi, paymaster of the Armed Forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
DAILY GUIDE is reliably informed that the young captain has admitted stealing the money and has since his arrest, been under close watch at the 37 Military Hospital Army Mess.
While he revealed during investigations that he had spent the money on the purchase of a number of landed and movable properties in Accra, unconfirmed reports say over $60,000 went to some senior officers in the Armed Forces and a couple of political figures.
He has however asked the authorities to confiscate and sell his properties to offset the debt, but indications are that he would be court-martialed one of these days.
According to reports reaching DAILY GUIDE, Captain Nikyi of the Armed Forces Pay Office at the Burma Camp was part of the Ghanaian Battalion sent on a peace-keeping mission in Congo early last year, under the command of Lt. Col. Nsiah of the 6th Battalion of Infantry.
The paymaster however dipped his hands into the salaries of his colleagues, but the theft was detected on his return to Ghana.
It also came to light that a group of officers contacted a Brigadier asking that an amicable way is found of handling the matter and 'closing the docket' without getting it to court.
But other soldiers at the Burma Camp felt alarmed when they realized that the suspect, with $300,000 theft around his neck, vanished only to resurface in Morocco on another foreign mission.
Following the alarms raised, the Captain was arrested in the North African country and immediately repatriated to Ghana.
DAILY GUIDE gathered that upon interrogation, Nikyi did not only admit responsibility for the theft, but also revealed that he spent it on some properties in Accra, and therefore asked that they be sold and the proceeds put to government chest.
Among the properties he claimed to have bought are a self-contained building along the Spintex Road, $70,000; house at Kasoa $35,000; Kasapreko Store at Kasoa, $32,000; 2 KIA Trucks, $20,000; a plot of land at Kasoa, $5,000; rice store at Malam Atta, $10,000; building material store at Kasoa, $15,000; canopies for hiring, $10,000; chairs for hiring, $8,000; mattresses for hiring, $7,000 and a tanker for a KIA truck, $1,000.
Other items allegedly bought with the stolen money are a 40” Plasma TV, home theatre machine, three pumping machines, a generator, water hose, poly-tank, two split air conditioners, and a set of furniture.
A document intercepted by DAILY GUIDE indicates that payment for the $70,000 three-bedroom house along the Spintex Road was made on April 10, 2008 to a certain Richmond Asiamah of Tema.
The value of the properties listed to have been bought by Capt. Nikyi totaled $239,100, leaving $61,000 unaccounted for.
DAILY GUIDE is reliably informed that the suspect has recently purchased a popular petrol filling station along the Obasanjo Way in Accra.
By Bennett Akuaku
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