Woyome And NerquayeTetteh In Court Today

Indications are that Alfred Agbesi Woyome and a Chief State Attorney; Samuel Nerquaye-Tetteh will be put before court today. The police will seek to remand the two persons to enable the police to continue with their investigations until charges are pressed against the two. The probability of the State going to court is to forestall Woyome�s lawyers going to court to seek bail under the 48-hour custody rule. Woyome was arrested last Friday and Nerquaye-Tetteh was picked up by the police on Saturday for questioning following the release of the interim report by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) last Wednesday after its investigations into the payment of some GHC 51million judgment debt to Woyome. The EOCO report stated that Nerquaye-Tetteh�s wife, Mrs Gifty Nerquaye- Tetteh, was paid GH�400,000 by Woyome on June 16, 2011. The reason for the payment of that amount is yet to be established. The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service told the Daily Graphic Sunday that the police hoped to talk to other persons indicted by the EOCO report. As of the time of filing this report Sunday (2:00 p.m.), Mrs Nerquaye- Tetteh was being interrogated by a team of investigators at the CID Headquarters. The investigators were seeking answers to the circumstances under which the GH�400,000 was paid into her account. It could not be confirmed if Mrs Nerquaye- Tetteh, who is said to be nursing two young children, would be detained or charged. �We need to hear from her first and also check on the veracity of her claims that she is nursing two young children before we decide to keep her in custody or not,� the CID said. It also indicated that it would invite many more people, explaining that �we are going one step after another. We will not rush�. The government has served notice that all who deserve to face the law over the scandal will be hauled before court. Following Woyome's arrest last Friday, a large group of his sympathisers, including the National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Kwabena Adjei, and the Propaganda Secretary of the party, Mr Richard Quarshigah, thronged the CID Headquarters apparently to solidarise with him. The police had to mount a barricade to prevent people from marauding the CID Headquarters. A number of groups have since emerged, including the Free Woyome Campaign Movement, to demand his immediate release from police custody. An interim report presented to President John Evans Atta Mills last Wednesday by the EOCO concluded that Mr Woyome was not entitled to the GH�5,283,480.59 paid to him by the government for the abrogation of contracts in respect of the construction of stadia for the Africa Cup of Nations in 2008 (CAN 2008). It indicted Mr Woyome for �manipulating documents and information, and riding on the negligence and/or complicity of public officials� to receive money which he was clearly not entitled to. The report, dated February 1,2012 and signed by the Executive Director of EOCO, Mr Biadela Mortey Akpadzi, said Mr Woyome, through his manipulations, received GH�17,094,493.53 in February 2010, GH�10,000,000 on January 27, 2011, GH�10,000,000 on April 8,2011 and GH�14,188,987.06 on September 12, 2011. A former Minister of Education, Science and Sports in the Kufuor administration, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo; a former Minister of Justice and Attorney-General in the Mills administration, Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, as well as two public officials, were all indicted by the EOCO report. The two public officials are the Director, Legal, at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MoFEP), Mr Paul Asimenu, and the Chief State Attorney in charge of the Woyome case, Mr Nerquaye- Tetteh.