Investigations by Whatsup News has revealed that the single-sourced award of Ghana’s COVID 19 airport test was orchestrated at the highest level at Jubilee House, the seat of Ghana’s Presidency.
Deep throat sources indicate that The Peters Family Company Limited, the ultimate owner of the two front companies used to hide the COVID-19 testing at the airport might be linked to Controversial Nigerian billionaire, Benedict Peters a close friend of both President Nana Akuffo Addo and former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Benedict Peters, who is on a self-imposed exile in Ghana since 2018, has been battling Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on allegations (EFCC)
Despite his wealth, Peters is somewhat of a controversial figure, smeared with several allegations of corruption, criminal conspiracy, bribery, diversion of funds and money laundering. He is alleged to be one of the individuals who linked to the infamous former Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Maudeke who is still under investigation.
Whilst out of Nigeria in 2017, the country’s Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) declared Peters wanted in respect of crimes they claim he committed together with the infamous former Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Alison-Maudeke, who is wanted in Nigeria but is currently held up in the UK where she is facing corruption charges.
After Peters was declared wanted, the EFCC placed their hand on the following properties belonging to the businessman:
- 58 Harley House, Marylebone Road, London worth 2,800,000 million pounds
- Apartment 4, 5, Arlington Street, London worth 11,800,000 million pounds
- Flat 5, 83-86, Prince Albert Road, London worth 3,750,000 million pounds
- Aiteo Energy Resources worth over $4.023 billion.
- Account No 105277 in FBN Bank (UK) in the name of Mr. B and Mrs. N. Peters
- Funds in Account No 107127 in FBN Bank (UK) of Walworth Properties Ltd
- The sum of 36,674.7 pounds held on behalf of defendant in the client Account of Clyde and Co. LLP, London
- The sum of 40,620 pounds held in a correspondent Bank Account at Ghana International Bank, London
- Shares in Walworth Properties Limited, Rosewood Investments and Colinwood Limited.
However, in 2018, a high court in Nigeria ordered Peters to be removed from the wanted list on a technical basis that the EFCC did not obtain a warrant before placing him on the list. The court also ordered the above properties to be returned to him. The EFCC had indicated that Peters was dodging them and hiding abroad, failing to appear before the anti-corruption body despite repeated summons.
After the EFCC removed his name from the list, he made Ghana his preferred home from where he is said to be operating his businesses.
“In July this year, we went to court to hear a case in which the former Minister has been summoned. The case has been adjourned until the 28 of October, 2020. Once we get hold of her, we shall finally talk about Peters,” and EFCC source said last week.
In 2017, Mr Peters was sued in Nigeria for making a donation of $115 million to political parties in the 2015 general elections which insiders alleged was meant to bribe electoral officials.
One Chief Akinmoju sued the billionaire, alleging that he paid a bribe of $115 million to electoral officers to influence the outcome of the 2015 Presidential elections.
Chief Akinmoju told the court that all of the electoral officers had made confession statements while their bank accounts had been frozen.
Aside the $115 million, Peters was also accused of donating $60 million to the PDP campaign fund, an amount the suit said was over the legal limit and a violation of the Nigeria Elections Act.
Peters admitted to the donation but denied that he had bribed electoral officers. He indicated in his affidavit that he has always made donations to political parties and that the money was not meant to be a bribe.
A High Court judge dismissed the suit against Peters, saying “the plaintiff failed to show the court that the money was donated to influence the outcome of the 2015 Presidential elections.”
AITEO GROUP
Peter Benedict is the owner of indigenous Nigerian Oil Giant AITEO. The company is owned by Nigerian billionaire Benedict Peters. AITEO is described as the largest indigenous oil producing firm in Nigeria by output. Peters’ estimated net worth is said to be around US$3 billion, making him the 5th richest man in Nigeria.
When the pandemic broke out in Nigeria, Peters donated $30 million to the country’s COVID19 fund and donated Zero to Ghana’s COVID FUND.
FRONTIERS/PETERS AMPOFO/NANA ADDO
To begin with, Frontier Health Services is owned 100% by Healthcare Solutions Limited, a company which is, in turn, owned 100% by The Peters Family Company Limited, an opaque company registered in the notorious Caribbean Island tax haven called Dominica.
Whatsup News is confident that Peters Family Company Limited is owned by Nigerian billionaire businessman, Benedict Peters who is a close ally of former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo and President Nana Akufo Addo. Whatsup News has obtained evidential photographs to prove this connection.
Incidentally, the point man at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) who facilitated the entire deal to hand over the contract to charge each traveller to Ghana US$ 150 each in the guise of a mandatory COVID-19 test, is a cousin to President Akufo Addo-Professor William Kwabena Ampofo.
Professor Ampofo is the Coordinator of the National Laboratory for COVID 19 Testing at Noguchi. This publication has obtained an August 27, 2020 letter addressed to Prof. Ampofo, from Frontier Healthcare Services “requesting for COVID-19 testing support at Kotoka International Airport”. The letter was signed by Dr. Emmanuel Acquaye, purporting to be a Director at Frontier Healthcare Services.
In the letter, Frontier which was registered less than a month previously, (July 21, 2020) was requesting Prof. Ampofo’s support to carry out their “Novel and first of its kind worldwide” COVID-19 test on international travellers arriving Kotoka Airport.
Dr. Emmanuel Acquaye is a preacher and the Head Pastor for the Baastona Branch of Action Chapel International founded by Archbishop Duncan Williams. When contacted via telephone, Dr. Acquaye admitted that Professor Ampofo is his good friend, in what exposed a potential conflict of interest.
Essentially, the underhand dealers between the top hierarchy of Noguchi, the Akufo Addo administration and the Peters Family has not gone undetected as it also confirmed the earlier complaints by civil society groups and scientists from both Noguchi and elsewhere that the COVID-19 test being conducted at Kotoka was fraudulent because it is an Antigen test-which is one of the least accurate and cheap. Yet, Ghana was charging the highest price worldwide for the cheap test.
Also, it has emerged that the test by Frontier Healthcare Services has not undergone any clinical verification and thus cannot be considered safe to be used effectively on humans.
On Monday, Policy Think-tank IMANI Africa, having caught hint of the scandalous COVID-19 testing at KIA, raised red flags about the validity of the test.
“More alarmingly, our sources are adamant that a “globally novel” biomedical intervention, as the Frontiers Healthcare product has been billed, cannot be used on humans without the approval of the Ethical Review authorities at the institution. And yet, the Department of Virology has gone ahead to work with Frontiers Healthcare without any institutional review. What is going on here?“ IMANI warned.
“The Health Institutions & Facilities Act of 2011 (Act 829) is very clear about the prerequisite for delivering clinical and biomedical laboratory services in this country: a company and its facilities have to be licensed by HEFRA – the Health Facilities Regulatory Agency of Ghana. Our checks reveal that at the time that Professor Ampofo oversaw the supposed validation processes for Frontiers Healthcare to begin making money, these approvals had not been secured.”
Incidentally, Benedict Peters, the hidden owner of Frontier Healthcare Services is smeared with several allegations of corruption, criminal conspiracy, bribery, diversion of funds and money laundering.
He is said to be one of the individuals who conspired with former Nigerian Minister of Petroleum, Mrs Diezani Alison-Maudeke, to misappropriate public funds.
In 2017, Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) declared Peters wanted in respect to the alleged crimes committed in collaboration with disgraced Alison-Maudeke, who is wanted in Nigeria but is currently held up in the UK where she is facing corruption charges.
After his brush with EFCC, Peters did not return to Nigeria but went into self- imposed exile in Europe and also established a base in Ghana. According to intelligence gathered at Kotoka, Peters frequently fly into Accra in private jets and constantly uses the VVIP Lounge at KIA, where he is treated as a king because of his connections with the higher government echelon in Ghana and the fact that he generously splashed money on airport staff.
A few years ago, One Chief Akinmoju had sued the billionaire, alleging that he paid a bribe of $115 million to electoral officers to influence the outcome of the 2015 Presidential elections. Chief Akinmoju told the court that all of the electoral officers had made confession statements while their bank accounts had been frozen. Aside the $115 million, Peters was also accused of donating $60 million to the PDP campaign fund, an amount the suit said was over the legal limit and a violation of the Nigeria Elections Act. Peters admitted to the donation but denied that he had bribed electoral officers.
Further investigations reveal that Frontiers Healthcare Services Ltd has just put up a website which has been flagged for copyright violations. Curiously, the website is managed by First Atlantic Bank and the bank based in Ghana purchased the domain name on August 27, 2020, for a year by an offshore company based in PANAMA.
Investigations that ties the complex web of shell companies together in the two notorious tax havens reveal that the largest shareholder for First Atlantic Bank is called Kedary Nominees, which owns 58% shares of First Atlantic Bank. Incidentally, Kedary Nominees is owned by AITEO, described as the largest indigenous oil-producing firm in Nigeria by output. AITEO is owned by Benedict Peters whose net worth is said to be around US$3 billion, making him the 5th richest man in Nigeria.