-Former CDS Says His Fortunes are from Family Inheritance
-But Asset Declaration Questions Linger
General Thomas Oppong Peprah, the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, has fired back at mounting questions over his staggering personal wealth insisting he was simply born into money.
The retired military chief, who in March 2025 took up the prestigious posting as Ghana’s Deputy High Commissioner to Canada, is sitting on a property portfolio that reads like a billionaire’s shopping list: 23 houses across Ghana, the United Kingdom, Dubai and the United States.
But the General, whose official responsibilities once required full asset disclosure to the Auditor General, has remained conspicuously silent on whether any of these lavish properties were ever declared.
In a combative response to The New Republic’s inquiries, General Oppong Peprah pointed to his lineage as the sole explanation.
“Let me let you know this; number one, I was born to a rich father. You can check this; he was a transport owner running transport in Kumasi, Tommy Brothers Transport. He had articulator trucks, fuel tankers and so on and so forth. I inherited him, and many people know this in the military and other places. I have been in business for a long time.”
However, those who know the Oppong Peprah family story tell a different tale. As the 36th child of his father’s 56 children, he inherited a transport empire that, insiders say, was reduced to just three ramshackle buses before his father’s passing.
The General, undeterred, maintains he has built his fortune legitimately.
“The fact is that I’m a made-up person myself. I don’t need to go to anybody to beg for money,” he declared.
Sources close to the retired General have painted a picture of breathtaking opulence:
In Accra’s most exclusive neighbourhoods, the General allegedly owns a $1.3 million mansion in Airport Hills – purchased in 2023 and subsequently upgraded with an additional $1 million in renovations. He also holds properties in Cantonments, including a fully furnished two-bedroom apartment at Aura gifted to his UK-based daughter Esther, and another in East Legon.
At the upscale Mayfair Estate in Tse-Addo, he is said to own two four-bedroom houses – one gifted to his wife Agnes Oppong-Peprah, located in the same enclave as Vice President Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang’s residence.
Beyond the capital, his properties include a brand-new personal home in Sunyani, a mansion with pool in Kyebi serving as a holiday retreat, two houses in Apollonia, a block of flats in Oyarifa, a four-bedroom house behind Palace Supermarket at Spintex, and an apartment at The Altitude in Labone.
On the international front, the list is equally staggering:
· A £750,000 holiday home in the UK purchased recently for his mistress Ann
· Properties in Dubai under development through EMAAR developers, paid for in cash via proxy Michael Zormelo – reportedly intended to secure a UAE residence permit
· His wife Agnes’s separate portfolio: three properties in Ohio, USA, including a $1.4 million home, now converted into “TAFF Home Daycare”
The General’s vehicular collection mirrors his property portfolio: a dark sand-coloured Range Rover, a new navy-blue bullet-proof Lexus, Toyota truck, Kia Van, Toyota Estate, and an S-Class Mercedes-Benz.
Beyond his wife’s holdings, the General has allegedly purchased another property at the African Union village for one Anne Boateng, his mistress, where she resides with their two sons Thomas and Guy.
Under Ghana’s asset declaration law, public officials including the Chief of Defence Staff are required to declare their assets to the Auditor General. The General’s current appointment as Deputy High Commissioner also triggers similar obligations.
Yet when pressed, General Oppong Peprah remained defiant rather than forthcoming.
“I rather used my influence and my position to help the Ghana Armed Forces by building a lot of free buildings, and that is why the soldiers love me and people hate me, because they think that I came,” he said, deflecting from the central question.
The New Republic can confirm that none of these properties have ever been declared to the Auditor General.
The General’s transition from military chief to diplomatic post has raised further eyebrows. In recent weeks, he has reportedly made a GH₵3 million deposit for a real estate project in Tse-Ado (now seeking exit due to complications) and invested $1 million in a development adjacent to Bok Nam golf course owned by Mayfair developer John Watson.
As investigations continue, one question persists: If this fortune was indeed inherited from a transport business reduced to three buses, where did the rest come from? And why was it never declared?