High C’ssioner Osei denies ‘Kohl’s’ allegation

His Excellency Mr. Isaac Osei, Ghana's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, has vehemently denied the allegation of 'stealing' levelled against him by Mr. Oppong Kyekyeku Chancellor Kohl, a Ghanaian law student in Britain, who claimed that the High Commissioner had kept money and a certificate passed through him by Snaresbrook Crown Court in London, as carried in the Chronicle of June 24.

In a letter of June 27, 2005, to The Chronicle, Lexcom Associates, lawyers of Mr. Osei, last week stated that their client “emphatically and categorically denies having ever received any money whatsoever for and on behalf of Mr. Oppong Kyekyeku Chancellor Kohl and his LL.B certificate.”

A day after the publication of the story, a Nana Otuo Acheampong, said to be a spokesman of Mr. Osei, called the paper's office at New Town, Accra, and complained to the editor that the publication was not fair to the high commissioner, as he was not contacted for his side.

Nana Acheampong told the editor that Mr.Osei's accuser, Mr. Kohl, had a mental problem and for confirmation of that he should go to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, which has a dossier on him, to check.

However, readers would recall that in the said story the paper reported that on October 12, last year, after Mr. Kohl first made the allegation, Mr. Osei denied receiving any parcel from the university.

We hereby reproduce the part of the story that confirms the foregoing assertion.

“According to a correspondence of March 19, 2004, signed on his behalf by a Minister Counsellor and Head of Welfare and Consular at the Mission, Mr. J. Magnussen, the envoy stated that enquiries into the matter have not been positive because, “ we have not received anything meant for you (Kohl) in this office.”

”In another message dated May 8, 2004, faxed to 051-30085 for the attention of Rev. Victor Osei of Family Chapel in Kumasi, the Ambassador said that the Mission did not expect to receive any such material and that they (Ghana Mission, London) were willing to further investigate the case if Kohl would assist them by indicating the source of his information and providing details that would help in verifying the claim.

Envoy Osei is also reported to have informed President Kufuor that he had gotten new additional information regarding the issue but has since not released that information.

He is reported also as having told the President that Kohl was mad and was not to be taken serious after he had narrated the arrest, trial and exculpation of Kohl to the President.

The President had as well been briefed about the perception that even in Kohl's university days, his (Kohl's) mental balance was suspect, explained in his decision to change his name from Oppong Kyekyeku to Chancellor Kohl.

Meanwhile, a Ghanaian medical doctor (name withheld) who visited Kohl while he was at the Pentoville prison and Maudsley hospital in London and stood surety for Kohl has certified that “Kohl is perfectly normal and that there is no evidence which says that he needs any psychiatric treatment.”

In spite of the denial by envoy Osei, Chancellor Kohl still accuses Ghana's High Commissioner at 13 Belgrave Square in London of stealing his LLB certificate in law and two cheques, received as compensation for wrongful remand (remand No. JM6720) for five months from October 30, 2002 to March 29, 2003.”