Sir John wrote his last will two months before he died – Charles Owusu

Sir John died in 2020

Charles Owusu sued over the distribution of Sir John’s properties

It has been disclosed that the late former General Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party, Kojo Owusu Afriyie (Sir John), prepared his final will some two to three months before his death in 2020.

According to Charles Owusu, a close confidante of the deceased, Sir John showed him a prepared draft of his will which he was going to pass on to his lawyers to be used as a guide for the distribution of his properties in the event of his death.

Charles Owusu, who worked as an assistant to Sir John in his last days as Chief Executive Officer of Ghana’s Forestry Commission, made this disclosure in an interview with Kofi Adomah Nwanwani.

“I entered his office, and typical of him, he asked me if we are closing, and I said yes, I was on the left, and he was on the right. He was hitting his table with it (the document), and he told me, this is my will; this is my last will. I jokingly said you stated last year that you have 15 more years to die; why do you keep on scaring us? He laughed and told me that I was young and that I would understand when I grew too. He added that ‘when I die, this is what will guide you in sharing my properties,” Charles Owusu, who has been named executor of Sir John’s will, stated.

The disclosure by Charles Owusu comes at the back of a suit filed by one Mrs Agnes Owusu-Afriyie, who has identified herself as a widow of the late Sir John, over what she says are attempts to sideline her in the sharing of properties belonging to the deceased.

According to the plaintiff, Charles Owusu and one Nana Boakye Akeampong of Old Tafo, who were jointly appointed by the late Sir John as Executors of his will, have gone ahead to read a supposed will of the deceased without her knowledge as Mrs Owusu-Afriyie four months after her husband’s death.

It is the argument of her lawyer that the will failed to make “reasonably adequate provisions” for her, and several attempts to sit down with the family, including the executors of the will has failed.

The complainant, also known as Akosua Darkoah, notes that there are attempts by the family and the executors of Sir John’s will to deny her a fair share of her husband’s properties and has thus asked a court to restrain the executors from going ahead with the sharing of his properties.

On how he reacted to the information, Charles Owusu said, “I didn’t take him seriously because I’ve always known him to have a way of talking about such things, jokingly.”

In his defence, however, Charles stated in his interview with Kofi Adomah that the will of the late Sir John does not support the existence of a supposed Mrs Agnes Owusu-Afriyie.

According to him, even though there existed a relationship between Madam Akosuah Darkoah alias Agnes Boakye and the late Sir John, he does not know her as Mrs Owusu Afriyie.

The late Sir John, a former General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party, died on July 1, 2021. A politician and legal practitioner, Sir John, was the serving Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission of Ghana at the time of his death.

Watch Charles Owusu’s interview below: