Opinions of Tuesday, 27 November 2018

Columnist: Dawda Eric

The move towards the retrieval of Woyome's loot is quite refreshing

Woyome Woyome

Ever since this government came to power, there has been a significant move towards the retrieval of the woyome's loot paid by the NDC government in 2010. This loot is the biggest scandal to have hit the Republic of Ghana after a year the National Democratic Congress was voted into power by the good people of Ghana. It has never been in doubt that, Alfred Agbesi Woyome still remains a staunch financier of the NDC. A year after the NDC was voted into power, they decided to punish the ordinary citizen who queued in the sun to endorse them by paying GHc 51.2M to their financier for no work done. A whooping sums of Ghc 51.2m of tax payers money was dashed to the NDC financier for criminal reasons best known to the NDC. Justice Jones Dotse in his concurring opinion o in Martin Amidu V AG & others didnt mince words when he described the said thievery as create,loot and share as if there was a brigade for such an enterprise.

It is also instructive to note that, NDC never showed any seriousness in getting our monies back even when the supreme court directed the Attorney to get the monies retrieved for the good people of Ghana.In October 2016, Ms Dorothy Afriyie, chief state Attorney filed an application to have woyome orally examined on oath for the purpose of tracing his hidden assets for sale in order to use the proceeds of those assets to offset the debt on his neck. Shockingly and surprisenly, the Attorney general went to the supreme court with an "application for discontinuance. The said application saw the end of the matter. Later we were told stories.

Today we Ghanaians are fortunate to have the New Patriotic party in government with all the commitment and the zeal to get our monies back for us.Under this government, the process that was abandoned by the NDC government in so far as the retrieval of the woyome loot is concerned has been rekindled at the supreme court of Ghana. This Attorney general has been able to trace all the assets of the NDC financier and these assets have been attached for sale.

The only outstanding issue before the supreme court is the application which has been filed by UT bank with claims that, some of the attached properties by the state were actually used to secure loans as collateral by Mr.Woyome which stands unpaid as we speak. It has also been revealed by this competent Attorney general that, there isnt any accurate documentation to prove the said claim by the defunct bank.

After woyome had denied ownership of the said property that was in contention, the deputy AG, Godfred Yeboah Dame, during the hearing last Thursday, tendered a writ of summons which was filed by Anator Quarry Limited as evidence. Woyome is believed to be the executive chairman of the company.

That was after a Chief State Attorney, Stella Badu, had made a series of references to the document during cross-examination by the counsel for Woyome, Osafo Buabeng.

According to the deputy AG, Woyome was described as the owner of the two properties in the writ filed by Anator Quarry at the Accra High Court.

Later after woyome was striped naked in court, his counsel objected to the tendering of the writ, arguing that the right procedure was for the court to order the registrar of the High Court to tender the whole file on the case initiated by Anator Quarry.

According to him, such a move would prevent the court from having access to only a document that would favour the case of the AG.

He also told the court that he had been informed that Anator Quarry had filed to discontinue the case at the High Court.

The sole judge, Justice A. A. Benin, however, admitted the writ into evidence, stating that the AG could assist the court with the writ so far as all the parties had seen and confirmed it as the original writ. Very soon the court is going to rule on the application and that would definitely pave a nice way for his assets to be sold to defray the debt.

The above was to dispute the claims filed by the defucnt bank in respect of the seeming controversies surrounding the move to retrieve the monies from woyome. Isnt it intriguing that, during the criminal trial of woyome, a memo written by the solicitor general to the Attorney general in which the former ws advising against putting key officials including Betty Mould Iddrisu and others involved in the scandal in the witness box because of the fear of being embarrassed. The said memo was then leaked from AG's office to woyome and was tendered as exhibit 32 during the trial. The tendering of that document gave his lawyers the firm grounds to punch holes in prosecution.

The NDC including John Mahama are stagging a serious come back so that, those who are currently on trial and those yet to be prosecuted wont go through the hustle and tussle. NDC has nothing good for the people of Ghana. Apart from thievery and the plundering of the public purse, they have nothing good to offer Ghanaians. Let's all wake up and reject them on any other day to save future generations. NDC is more cancerous than the word "cancer".

Dawda Eric(Equity)

Citizen Vigilance for Justice

25th November,2018

dawdaeric26@gmail.com