Woyome Walking Free Is A Slap In The Face Of Ghanaians
We are distressed to learn that Alfred Agbesi Woyome, the NDC stalwart and self-styled financial engineer who Ghanaians worldwide believe duped the country of 51 million Ghana cedis – the equivalent of US$14.5 million dollars – of judgment debt, in return for no work, has been exonerated by the High Court in Accra. This $14.5 million judgment debt, “owed” by the Government of Ghana, was a giveaway by the ruling NDC. The giveaway was orchestrated with the help of the former Attorney General Betty Mould Iddrisu, the current Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Ebo Barton-Oduro (who was then deputy in the Attorney General’s department to Mrs Mould Iddrisu), the former finance minister Dr Kwabena Duffuor and the current President, John Dramani Mahama, who was the head of the Government’s economic management team when the money was disbursed.
Since 2011, the New Patriotic Party’s UK Branch in support of the National NPP party has campaigned for this money to be returned to the people of Ghana. We will not stop campaigning for the return of this colossal sum, which could build schools, create jobs, reduce poverty and help solve Ghana’s energy crisis. The NPP is on the side of Ghanaians whose message is very simple-Mr Woyome bring back our money!
What is even more amazing about this decision is that Ghanaians expected the state prosecution, led by the current Attorney General, Marietta Brew Oppong, to do its job with the overwhelming evidence available. How can this be possible when the Attorney General has a personal interest in the case?
We recollect that Mrs Marietta Brew Oppong was part of Mr Woyome’s legal team when the case first started. If that is the case, is it not now clear that her loyalties lie elsewhere than in seeking to do what is requested of her as a public official?
We have no doubt in our mind that this case, which was adjourned several times between 2011 and 2015, is an orchestrated scheme to loot public funds without any remorse, using the judiciary as a smokescreen to protect the wrongdoers and abusing the Attorney General’s Office to complete the perversion of the course of justice.
It is a sad day for our country. In our opinion, this marks the legalization of corruption. This is the day when the National Democratic Congress declared to the world that it has adopted corruption and looting of state funds as national policy; that “create loot and share” is a normal part of their administration. It is a day we even learned that Mr Woyome will be supported by the Government to seek compensation for the freezing of his bank accounts, accounts which, we argue, should remain frozen and confiscated to the state.
The founder of the NDC himself, Former President Jerry Rawlings has referred to Mr Woyome as a thief, and the decision of the court as a shocking decision! The silence from John Mahama and his ministers and the rest of the NDC party is one of absoulute silence and secret jubilation and we are not surprised.
The Supreme Court, in a judgment read on 29 July 2014, announced that Alfred Agbesi Woyome was liable to refund the Ȼ51 million to the state. Why have Marietta Brew Oppong and the President of Republic, John Mahama, not taken any action to collect this money?
The level of crime and corruption under the NDC Government since 2009 is phenomenal. To cite just a few examples:
● Ȼ86 million Ghana cedis embezzled at the National Service Secretariat;
● millions of cedis embezzled at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital;
● 80 million dollars worth of gold bars smuggled to Iran and Turkey
● police recruitment scams;
● 2014 World Cup and 2015 Cup of African Nations misappropriations;
● Aiding the likes of cocaine queen Nayele Ametefe to smuggle millions of pounds’ worth of drugs.
We have borrowed $27 billion in just six years and we have just been forced to sign up with the IMF to borrow another $940 million, yet this Government helps a party man to make away with the equivalent of $14.5 million – just one man.
This is a Government where it is the target of every minister and deputy minister, in the words of the former deputy communications minister Victoria Hammah, to leave office with at least $1 million!
The NDC party has no respect for the Ghanaian people. Their leader, John Mahama, calls himself a dead goat and says that dead goats cannot be killed. We don’t blame him.
We still have faith. We still believe and pray that this nightmare that Ghanaians are going through will one day end. The time has come for all Ghanaians – civil society, students, workers, the clergy, all opposition political parties – to join NPP to work together for change.
We need change; we want change; change must come. Ghana can do better with Nana Akufo-Addo as our leader and President.
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