Co-owner of Dekpor Mighty Rovers Football Academy, Gabriel Kwamigah Tanko, has said that the ownership of the Academy has not changed hands as the public was being made to believe.
He has therefore sent a strong warning to any individual or group engaged in any move to take over ownership of the Academy, especially one Edem Agbana, who is said to have recently announced on social media, a take over of the Academy, to stay off in his own interest.
It is alleged that Edem Agbana – the parliamentary candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2024 elections and his cronies were making moves to illegally take over ownership of the academy which is currently under the legal ownership and directorship of Kwamigah Tanko and Justice Ackey.
A statement issued by the management of Tanko Foundation on July 18, 2023 on the development said: “Our attention has been drawn to a Social Media post in which Eric Edem Agbana alleges that he has taken over the ownership of Dekpor Mighty Rovers Football Academy and that the name of the Academy has been changed to Nukunu Sporting Academy.”
The statement said categorically that Gabriel Tanko Kwamigah-Atokple is the Director of the Academy and that no such change of ownership has been effected at the Football Academy.
“Dekpor Mighty Rovers is incorporated at the Registrar General’s Department as a Company Limited by Guarantee. Consequently, the Academy operates within the confines of the Companies Act and changes in ownership can only occur with the laid down law.”
It added that the certificate of incorporation and other relevant documents of the Academy were all in possession of the owners and directors and wondered how ownership of the Academy could change hands without due process.
The statement said, a search at the Registrar General’s Department also revealed that the name and the Directors of the entity have not changed.
It therefore urged the general public, especially, followers and lovers of Dekpor Mighty Rovers FA to disregard the information making rounds that ownership of the club had changed hands.
“Basic knowledge in the laws of Ghana would inform everybody that a Company registered under the Companies Act cannot change Directors and for that matter ownership merely by a Social Media announcement – The news making round at best is a willfully calculated act by attention and trouble seekers – Their act is a clear and unfortunate demonstration of their ignorance of the law. Let the General Public ignore and treat same with disdain and the contempt it deserves,” the statement advised.
Subsequently, in a move to decisively deal with the issue, Gabriel Kwamigah Tanko has caused his lawyers, Afadjato Chambers to write on his behalf to the Chairman of the Volta Regional Football Association, calling for a halt in any attempt to change the ownership of Dekpor Mighty Rovers Football Academy.
The letter dated July 17 2023, reads in part:
“We are a firm of lawyers acting for Mr. Gabriel Tanko Kwamigah·Atokple also known as Gabriel Kwabla Kwamigah upon whose instructions we have to write you this letter on the above subject matter.”
“Our client says he is the Co-director of Mighty Rovers Football Academy, a 2nd Division Club based in Dekpor in the Ketu North Municipality of the Volta Region, herein after also referred to as the Club – The said Club has been incorporated as a Limited by Guarantee entity under the Companies Act of Ghana [2019] Act 992. Our client jointly owns the said Club with Justice Ackey,” the letter said.
The letter further said that: “Over the past one year or more, our client has played a major part in the funding of the Club and has most times solely funded activities of the Club such as hiring of buses for their matches and providing funds for the registration of the Club at the appropriate division within the region.”
“Our client says the Directors of the Club have not contemplated a change of ownership of the Football Academy. In addition, the owners have not agreed to change the name of the Club and its logo – As a Director of the Club, our client says on authority that no decision has been taken on the issues mentioned,” the letter concluded.
By Leo Nelson