SCANDAL IN GHANA

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29803, 21 April 1962, Page 18

SCANDAL IN GHANA

• Edusei Out Of Cabinet (N.Z.PA.-Reuter—Copyright) ACCRA, April 19 President Nkrumah yesterday sacked Mr Krobo Edusei as Ghana’s Minister of Industries and took’ over the job himself. The official announcement said the Government had also taken over the fabulous new mansion Mr Edusei had built for himself on the outskirts of Accra. The move was the climax of a wave of criticism against Mr Edusei since the news thait his wife. Mary, had paid £3OOO to a London furniture store for a gold-plated bed The announcement of Mr Edusei’s fall came only hours after his return from a flying visit to his wife in London. Tonight’s statement from the President’s office said the revocation of Mr Edusei’s appointment as a minister came into effect from today. It added that a deportation order had been made out against Mr E. Borio, the Italian contractor who built Mr Edusei’s house. The statement said Mr Borio was being deported because “certain circumstances which had come to light” in connexion with the Edusei house affair, made his presence in Ghana ‘‘not conducive to the public good.” Mr Eudsei, who is 47, had been a Cabinet minister since 1966, holding in succession the portfolios of the Interior. Communications and lately Industries. When he returned from London he was greeted with a front-page call in his party’s newspaper for him to “retire quietly from public life and surrender your illgotten gains.” The newspaper, the Ghana “Evening News.” the organ of Dr Nkrumah's Convention People's Party, has been leading the attack on Mr Edusei over the golden bed and the palatial house. Both the “Evening News” and the "Ghanaian Times" have claimed that Mr Edusei’s new house is worth at least £70,000, and not £19,000 sterling as he claimed. The house has a swimming pool, huge marblefloored salons and dazzling chandeliers.