A commercial dispute in Nigeria involving a Ghanaian owned real estate development in Abuja has sparked concern within Ghana’s investment community, amid warnings that the matter could strain economic relations between West Africa’s two largest Anglophone economies if not carefully managed.
The case centers on River Park Estate, a major residential project in Nigeria’s federal capital, owned by Ghanaian business interests linked to Sir Dr Sam Jonah. Although the dispute is currently before a Nigerian court, allegations that actions affecting the project have continued despite ongoing litigation have heightened anxieties about due process and institutional conduct.
Ghana has formally escalated the protracted dispute to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court, marking a significant diplomatic and legal turn in a controversy that now threatens to strain bilateral relations between Accra and Abuja. Ghana’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, Baba Jamal, confirmed that an official petition has been submitted to the regional bloc after earlier efforts at resolving the matter through engagement failed.
“When I became the High Commissioner, we properly briefed Accra, and that resulted in an official petition to ECOWAS,” Jamal said. According to him, ECOWAS has since requested full documentation on the dispute, a process that Ghana is completing. The diplomatic escalation follows sustained complaints by JonahCapital, a Ghanaian investment firm, which alleges harassment, document falsification and breach of agreement by Nigerian authorities.
Additionally, Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa raised concerns at the 95th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers held in Abuja from December 10 to 12, 2025, describing what he termed unfair treatment and harassment of Ghanaian businesses by Nigerian authorities, specifically citing the JonahCapital case as an example of alleged victimization.
Sir Sam Jonah submitted an 11 page petition dated December 13, 2025, to Minister Ablakwa over alleged unlawful actions by Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) that threaten his ownership interests in JonahCapital Nigeria Limited and Houses for Africa Nigeria Limited. The petition outlined a complex dispute accusing Nigerian authorities of expropriating shares and sidelining courts despite ongoing litigation.
According to the petition, CAC Registrar General Hussaini Ishaq Magaji cancelled all corporate filings for both companies on December 8, 2025, effectively reverting their status back to incorporation dates of 2006 and 2007 respectively. Sir Sam stated that upon checking company status reports, he discovered entire corporate records had been cancelled despite a court injunction barring such actions.
Justice Mohammed Zubairu of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, sitting in Jikwoyi Kurudu, had on September 17, 2025, issued an injunctive order barring Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) officials from entering the estate or taking any action pending the hearing and determination of a suit challenging the authority’s actions.
However, on December 18, 2025, officials of the FCDA, accompanied by police and other security personnel, moved into the high brow River Park Estate in Abuja with bulldozers and demolished multi million naira structures, despite the subsisting court order restraining such action. The suit was filed by JonahCapital Nigeria Ltd and Houses for Africa Nigeria Ltd against the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and the FCDA over ownership of the 500 hectare estate.
Analyst Yaw Barima said the situation demands measured but decisive engagement by the Government of Ghana to safeguard the interests of Ghanaian businesses operating abroad. “There is a clear responsibility to protect national investment credibility where credible concerns about fairness arise. This is not confrontation, but prudent economic diplomacy,” he said.
Ghana and Nigeria share deep commercial ties. Bilateral trade between the two countries runs into several billions of dollars annually, with Nigeria consistently ranking among Ghana’s top trading partners. Ghana, for its part, hosts thousands of Nigerian owned enterprises, spanning banking, telecommunications, retail trade, manufacturing and entertainment. Both countries are also central to regional integration efforts under ECOWAS and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Mr Barima noted that Ghana’s reputation for a stable legal and regulatory environment has long been a critical factor underpinning Nigerian business success in the country. “Property rights are respected and contracts are enforced. That goodwill has supported investment inflows for decades, but it is not inexhaustible,” he warned.
He argued that Nigerian businesses operating in Ghana have a direct stake in the outcome and should play an active role by urging restraint and respect for judicial processes at home. “They are uniquely positioned as responsible stakeholders. Silence risks allowing damaging perceptions of injustice to harden,” Barima said.
The ownership dispute has generated conflicting claims about who legitimately controls the estate. In June 2025, the Nigerian Police filed a 26 count charge against lawyer Abu Arome and three Ghanaians, Sir Sam Jonah, a Knight of the British Empire (KBE), Kojo Ansah and Victor Quainoo, along with Mobus Property Nigeria Ltd, before Justice Modupe Osho Adebiyi of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory.
According to court documents marked CR/402/2025 and dated June 25 but filed on June 26, 2025, the accused allegedly forged corporate documents and filed them with the CAC to unlawfully seize control of Houses for Africa Nigeria Ltd and JonahCapital Nigeria Ltd. The Police allege that the accused persons fraudulently increased the share capital of the companies and allocated 99 million shares to themselves using forged documents and forged signatures.
However, JonahCapital CEO Kojo Mensah has strongly contested these allegations, maintaining that JonahCapital’s ownership of the estate is supported by extensive documentation dating back to 2012. “The share certificates have been prepared. Transfer forms were signed by me and are sitting with the lawyers in Abuja,” he said, referencing an email dated June 27, 2012. He added that JonahCapital possesses FedEx records connected to the transmission of documents in 2012.
The management of JonahCapital Nigeria Limited and Houses for Africa Nigeria Limited issued a statement rejecting claims that the companies are run by Sir Sam Jonah, describing such reports as “false, misleading, and baseless.” The statement clarified that Jonah was only invited to be a shareholder at the beginning, that at no time was he a Director of the companies, nor did he participate in their management.
According to the statement, sometime in 2024, particularly on February 1, 2024, Samuel Jonah illegally executed a purported board resolution of JonahCapital Nigeria Limited despite never being a Director and having relinquished his shareholding since 2007. Using forged documents, the statement alleges, he unlawfully increased the company’s share capital from one million shares to 100 million shares, allocating 99 million shares to himself and fraudulently removing the legitimate Nigerian owners and directors, replacing them with his Ghanaian associates.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has also weighed in on the matter, denying ever allocating 501 hectares of land to Sir Sam Jonah. In a letter to the Police dated July 1, 2025, Obasanjo stated categorically that Jonah was “completely mistaken in his recollection” if he claimed the former president had ever allocated any land to him.
FCT Minister Nyesom Wike has publicly stated during a live national television broadcast on September 18, 2025, that Ghanaian businessman Sir Sam Esson Jonah was the owner and controller of JonahCapital Nigeria Limited, the company with development rights over the estate. However, a Nigerian investor involved in the matter argued that the minister’s public claims contradict findings and reports by several Nigerian authorities, including the CAC, the Inspector General of Police and even a committee reportedly set up by the minister himself.
Sir Sam Jonah, in a December 8, 2025 petition to Nigeria’s Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, accused the CAC Registrar General of unilaterally reversing nearly two decades of corporate records relating to JonahCapital Nigeria Ltd and Houses for Africa Nigeria Ltd. The petition requested investigation of “unlawful expropriation of shares, extrajudicial removal of directors and retrospective invalidation of corporate filings” by the CAC Registrar General.
According to Mensah, the CAC falsely claimed that JonahCapital failed to attend reconciliation meetings, an assertion he says is contradicted by video evidence publicly posted by the Registrar General himself. “In fact, it came to us as a surprise. The CAC never wrote to us,” Mensah said. “They wrote a letter to the Attorney General, peddling lies that we did not turn up for the meeting.”
Beyond the immediate dispute, analysts caution that the broader risk lies in investor sentiment. Ghana and Nigeria together account for a significant share of West Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP), and any deterioration in confidence could ripple across the sub region, affecting cross border investment flows, project financing costs and long term integration goals.
“When justice appears selective, commerce becomes fragile. Unchecked perceptions can shape public opinion, influence regulatory behaviour and strain bilateral relations. Ghana and Nigeria are too economically interdependent to allow a single dispute to escalate,” Mr Barima said.
Sir Sam Jonah ranks among Ghana’s most prominent business figures with extensive investments across multiple African countries. He previously served as Chief Executive Officer of Ashanti Goldfields Company, now AngloGold Ashanti, transforming it into one of Africa’s premier mining companies. His reputation and track record in corporate governance lend significant weight to allegations of procedural irregularities in the Nigerian CAC’s handling of his companies.
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice directed in August 2025 that the criminal case file be transferred to his office after the defendants were scheduled to be arraigned at the High Court of the FCT, Gwarimpa. The matter has since remained under the Attorney General’s review.
Legal observers have raised questions about whether delays or inaction at the level of the Attorney General are inadvertently enabling administrative overreach and undermining judicial processes already before the Federal High Court. Perhaps most troubling, sources indicate, is the apparent disappearance or continued non release of the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) report compiled by the Nigerian police on the River Park Estate dispute.
The River Park Estate dispute illustrates complexities of real estate development in Nigeria where land allocation procedures, title documentation and regulatory approvals can become contentious. Abuja’s property market has witnessed numerous ownership disputes involving both domestic and foreign investors as the capital city expands rapidly.
With the matter now formally before ECOWAS and ongoing litigation in Nigerian courts, stakeholders on both sides are watching closely to see how the dispute will be resolved and what precedent it might set for cross border investment and commercial disputes within the West African sub region.
