Attorney General and Minister of Justice Marietta Brew Appiah Oppong has been urged to initiate efforts to contest the Court of Appeal’s ruling on Thursday March 10, 2016, upholding the High Court’s decision to acquit businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome of defrauding the state of GHS51.2 million.
The Member of Parliament for Ablekuma West, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, said on Saturday, March 12 that there was enough grounds for the appellate court to quash the ruling of sacked High Court judge John Ajet-Nasam.
“The Court of Appeal, thankfully for us, is not the final opinion on this matter. I urge the Attorney General, if they are serious about protecting the interest of the state in this matter, to appeal the decision of the Court of Appeal,” the lawyer and lawmaker insisted.
“I disagree that anyone served with the facts of this matter can say that Woyome deserved to be paid [GHS] 51 million.”
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful, in spite of her opposition to the ruling on the case, stated that the verdict was of little surprise to her, given the actions of some government officials in the matter, which were everything, but in the state’s interest.
“I am not surprised Mr Woyome has won. And the conduct of the office of the Attorney General is what has resulted in this. Because the man (Mr Woyome) didn’t walk in there and take the money by himself. Officials of the state, the legal advisor to the state, the one who is in charge of protecting the legal interest of the state, for some reason, contrived to hand over these monies to Woyome,” she noted.
She said despite court records quoting Waterville as having already paid Mr Woyome, and the Kufuor administration writing to the government under the NDC that Mr Woyome did not deserve any claim, “somehow my sister Betty Mould Idrissu and Hon Barton-Odro [then Attorney-General and Deputy, respectively] decided that: ‘OK, let’s look at this matter again’”.
“And even when the court had said: ‘Don’t pay everything’, even when the president of the republic had said: ‘Halt, don’t give anybody any money’, you go ahead and approve a payment of GHS51million to this man. And the question I ask myself is: ‘Why was [Alfred] Woyome standing alone in the dock?’ Who did he act in concert with to deprive the state of this money? And where are those people? They are untouchable because they are key members of the NDC administration.”
He urged persons in positions of trust for the state to “move beyond politicisation of issues when the interest of the state is at stake” and take decisions that will benefit Ghana rather what will profit their “political traditions”.
“We are doing ourselves too much disservice as a nation when we focus too narrowly on the interests of our political cronies, our friends,” she added.
Mr Woyome was paid the GHS51.2 million after he sued the state over an alleged breach of a purported contract between him and the government. In connection with the termination of the same alleged contract, foreign construction firm Waterville Holdings BVI, was also paid €25 million
.
In the Waterville case, the Supreme Court, on June 14, 2013, declared as null and void, and of no operative effect, the contract between the firm and the Government of Ghana titled: ‘Contract for the Rehabilitation (Design, Construction, Fixtures, Fittings and Equipment) of a 40,000 Seating Capacity Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi, Ghana’ entered into between the Republic of Ghana and Waterville Holdings Limited (BVI), of P.O. Box 3444, Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands on April 26, 2006.
The ruling was premised on the basis that the alleged contract, which was the ground for the payment of the judgment debt to Waterville, following its alleged illegal termination, contravened Article 181 (5) of the 1992 Constitution, which required such contracts to go to Parliament for approval. The same court ruled that Mr Woyome did not merit the GHS51.2 million based on similar grounds.
Mr Woyome promised to refund the money by the end of 2015. In March last year, his lead counsel, Sarfo Boabeng, told the nine-member Supreme Court panel that heard the AG’s application for the retrieval of the money that his client had already resolved to make the payment at the end of 2015.
Mr Woyome’s accounts and assets were frozen about three years ago after he was arrested and charged for causing financial loss to the state, as well as defrauding by false pretence, with regards to the payment made to him between 2009 and 2010 under Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu and Mr Ebo Barton-Odro, as Attorney General and Deputy, respectively.
However, he was acquitted and discharged by a High Court on two counts of defrauding by false pretences and causing financial loss to the state.
According to the presiding judge, John Ajet-Nasam – who is one of 34 judges being investigated by the Chief Justice for corruption and who was recently removed from the judiciary on the orders of President John Mahama after investigations regarding his bribery conduct found him to have sullied his office – the prosecutors failed to prove Mr Woyome fraudulently obtained the GHS51.2 million.
Justice Ajet-Nasam also indicted the prosecution for failing to call Mrs Mould-Iddrisu, Mr Rex Magnus Danquah, Mr Barton-Odro, Mr Paul Asimenu, Mr Samuel Nerquaye-Tetteh and others – who had all given written opinions that Mr Woyome was entitled to the money – as witnesses.
Subsequently, a civil suit on the same case by Mr Amidu resulted in the apex court ruling that Mr Woyome, as well as Waterville, did not merit the payment for the work they allegedly did for the state ahead of Ghana’s hosting of CAN 2008, since he had not parliamentary approval for the contract that covered that endeavour.
Anti-corruption crusader Martin Amidu recently filed a suit at the Supreme Court praying the highest court of the land to throw out a suit filed by one Abdulai Yusif Fanash Muhammed, in which he is praying the same court to overturn its own ruling in which it said Mr Woyome must refund the GHS51.2 million.
The Hohoe resident sued Mr Amidu, the Attorney General, and Mr Woyome for a declaration that “the financial engineering claims by Alfred Agbesi Woyome arising out of the tender bid by Vamed Engineering GmbH/Waterville Holdings during the procurement process from June 2005 until its wrongful abrogation in August 2005, is not an international business transaction within the meaning of Article 181 of the Constitution, 1992,” for which reason parliamentary endorsement would have been necessary.
President Mahama told journalists at the Flagstaff House on January 12 that Abdulai Muhammed’s action frustrated processes by the AG to retrieve the money from Mr Woyome. That case was recently thrown out by the Supreme Court as “frivolous”. Mr Woyome, also recently pleaded with the court to allow him refund the GHS51m in installments within three years.
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