Shutting Down Scrutiny on Tax Dodges and GOIL Ties
…as anti-corruption fight faces Judge’s Garvel
By Gifty Boateng
In a fresh bid to muzzle a probing pen, Cynthia Adjei, CEO of the sprawling Lysaro Group and wife of ex-GOIL acting MD Jacob Kwabena Adjei, has dragged investigative journalist Innocent Samuel Appiah back to the High Court’s Human Rights Division demanding a slew of injunctions to block any whiff of publication on her firm’s alleged tax lapses, dodgy land grabs, and procurement coziness with state outfits.
This escalation, filed months after a controversial June 2025 ruling that slapped Appiah with a GH¢10,000 fine for even sniffing around, underscores the tightening noose on Ghana’s media watchdogs amid whispers of elite impunity in public dealings.
Adjei’s seven-point salvo accuses Appiah of trampling her privacy through “unlawful” queries into Lysaro’s operations spanning non-renewed registrations, skipped annual returns, unpaid taxes, and prime government land snags plus conflicts tied to GOIL contracts awarded during her husband’s helm. She paints herself as a mere private businesswoman from Trasaco, far from the public glare, insisting his pre-report questionnaire was an invasive overreach warranting perpetual bans on disclosures, damages, and costs.
Yet the subtext reeks of leverage: Lysaro’s empire, housing seven entities from luxury apartments to child welfare fronts, allegedly thrived on insider edges at state firms like GOIL, where family fingerprints linger.
Appiah, the Lapaz-based sleuth with 17 years in the trenches, fires back in a defiant affidavit, framing his outreach as textbook journalism ooted in constitutional duties to expose public-interest rot that’s bleeding Ghana’s battered economy dry.
“This isn’t malice; it’s mining facts on irregularities that could salvage our drained coffers,” he retorts, detailing tips on Lysaro’s filing failures, tax shortfalls, and land liberties in hot zones.
He slams her privacy pleas as baseless smokescreens: a simple query for her side isn’t intrusion, especially when GOIL’s procurement smells of favoritism and public funds hang in the balance. Media freedom hawks, still fuming over Justice Nana Brew’s earlier gag order decried as a press chokehold see this rematch as Adjei’s encore to bury scrutiny before it surfaces.
As Mahama’s graft-busters tout transparency, Adjei’s legal blockade highlights the fault lines: how connected tycoons deploy courts to shield dealings that blur private gain and public purse. With Appiah vowing ethical pursuit, the bench’s next call could either embolden watchdogs or entrench the elite’s veil potentially unearthing more on Lysaro’s web or slamming the door shut.