Life of GYEEDA Scandal Kingpin In Danger At Ankaful Prison- ADAM-GH Alerts

Dr. Philip Assibit Akpeena, one of the culprits jailed in the infamous GHC 4.1 million Ghana Youth Employment And Entrepreneurial Development (GYEEDA) is reportedly being subjected to “incessant” beatings by some prisons officers at the Ankaful Maximum Security Prisons where he is serving an 18-year jail term.

Pressure group, Anchoring Democracy Advocacy Movement Ghana (ADAM GH) has written a petition to the Interior Minister and the Director of the Ghana Prisons Service to complain bitterly at what they call inhumane treatment and torture of Dr. Assibit.

“Our sources confirmed that the inmate suffered numerous verbal abuse from DSP Sofo Aziz and DSP Kadri and some of their boys to the extent that, the inmate have to Lodge an official written complaint against the misconduct of these two officers to the OIC of the Ankaful Maximum Security Prisons, who doubles as the Central Regional Commander of the Ghana Prisons Service and copied the Public Relations Officer and the Second in Command of the Prisons,” ADAM-GH wrote in the petition dated June 20, 2021.

Following alleged threats by the above-named prison officers to kill him and make his death be hidden from his family, friends, and the media, Dr. Assibit Akpeena on May 29, 2021, was forced to write an official complaint seeking protection from the murderous threats.

“From our source, these DSPs threatened him among others that it is their duty to make sure he is consistently tortured and punished for stealing GYEEDA money and that they can stop all his visitors from seeing him in the Prisons,” stated Azubila Salam Emmanuel. ADAM-GH’s Executive Secretary.

“It is mind-boggling and disheartening when ADAM-GH investigations confirmed that an officer of Ankaful Prisons ACO Abdulai Iddrisu on the 12th April 2021, entered the room of the said inmate and woke him up from sleep, dragged him out of the room and subjected him to a ruthless physical abuse without any justifiable cause.”

According to the group, lawyers for Dr. Asibit Akpena confirmed that his doctors were prevented from seeing him by DSP Kadri and the DSP Aziz who have reportedly vowed to ensure the prisoner “never had any medication from the infirmary when he was sick in the Prison.”

Philip Akpeena and Abuga Pele the former CEO of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) were jailed in 2018 for conniving to dupe the state of GHC 4.1 million through Assibit’s company, Goodwill International Group (GIG).

Pele reportedly entered into a contract with Assibit to engage in activities that were found out to be a dubious scheme designed to fleece public funds. 

In 2010, Pele entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the GIG, where Assibit made a number of payment claims for consultancy services for the GYEEDA programme.