Struggling and stuttering, veteran journalist Kwaku Baako Jnr, is shell-shocked at a judgment freeing NDC businessman Alfred Woyome of any criminal intent in the GH₵ 51million financial scandal. He said there is too much information to prove that Woyome’s claim to GH₵ 51million was fraudulent.
“In the legal aspect I am still convinced that there is sufficient evidence before the courts, not to have come to the verdicts they came to,” Baako argued.
Burdened by two cases, civil and criminal, Alfred Woyome won the one that spared him jail time – criminal prosecution.
The state failed in its second attempt to secure a conviction at the Appeals Court after the High Court freed the businessman. The scandal which has lasted for more than four years effectively ends if the state does not pursue the case to the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Woyome is relieved. He told journalists that he has forgiven all those who insulted him and accused him of stealing. Alfred Woyome Discussing the verdict on Joy FM’s news analysis show, Newsfile, Kweku Baako Jnr said the testimony of Chairman of an Evaluation Committee for the 2008 CAN tournament, Van Lare Dosoo, “tears Woyome’s defence into shreds”.
“Nobody and I tell you nobody and I am sorry to say this, this is blasphemous, not even God can convince me that the testimony that the testimony…put forward did not undermine and destablise Woyome’s defence”.
In his defence, Woyome claimed payment for providing financial engineering services to bring in €1,106,470,587.00 for the funding of the construction of some stadia for the 2008 CAN tournament. He produced letters from a bank in Austria claiming that he would be getting funding from the bank.
But Van Lare Dosoo during his testimony explained that companies bidding for a contract often obtain letters of commitment from banks to show they are interested in funding the company if it won the bid. Van Lare Dosoo told the High Court that “to the best of my ability and experience” the letters are no where near a statement of commitment.
Bank Austria later withdrew from the project further weakening any claim from Woyome that he had engineered funds for the construction works.
Nonetheless, Woyome later wrote a petition demanding compensation for work done for government. The petition formed the basis for the court to enter judgement in favour of Woyome after the state failed to challenge Woyome’s claim.
“To be honest, there was no basis for the petition for it to result in consent judgment,” Kweku Baako was dismayed. Editor-In-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper said Ghanaians will lose faith in the judicial system if rulings that encourage impunity emanate from the courts.
“It is making Ghana look like a banana republic which we are not. It is a vote for impunity which should not be countenanced”. The veteran journalist said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government backed Woyome’s claim arguing that the former NPP administration was responsible for the cancellation of his contract.
Woyome, it turned out, had no contract with government. The financial scandal became a huge political fight as the opposition New Patriotic Party fought back accusations from the NDC government that Alfred Woyome was victimised by the NPP because of his links with the NDC.
“This whole thing would not have occured if there hadn’t been that crude political patronage, if we had not created a certain psychological environment that sustained the perception of some people having been victimised because of their political affliation”.
He suggested that government faced the possibility of eating humble pie if it emerged that Woyome indeed had no case to make his claim and hence was not victimised by the NPP government.
The then Attorney-General and Justice Minister Betty Mould who paid Woyome the money has been badly exposed as doing little to defend the state when Woyome made the claim. Despite a second defeat dealt the state, Kweku Baako wants the state to escalate the matter further to the Supreme Court to secure a conviction.
“I still think there is something wrong with the court of appeal judgement… they should try it a third one” Baako encouraged. Alfred Woyome however, lost the civil case to a private and popular citizen Martin Amidu. It means he would have to cough up GH₵51million – just about the same amount government invested in producing drugs locally. Co-panelist Deputy Finance Minister, Mona Quartey, expressed shock that a syndicate with state collaborators are collecting monies from the state for no work done.
“The last thing this nation needs is for anyone to keep GH₵51million for no work done and then to almost always tease the rest of us [for] getting away with it”.
The government official said she “suspects strongly that [the Attorney-General] will appeal again.
Source: adomonline
