Woyome Saga: State Attorney Was Arrested At The Airport

he Minority Leader, Osei-Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, has described beleaguered National Democratic Congress (NDC) financier, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, as a �determined thief� who allegedly connived with former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Betty Mould-Iddrisu to defraud the state of over GH�51 million for no work done. Mr Woyome is presently cooling off at the CID headquarters cells in Accra for defrauding the state by manipulating documents. Speaking on Oman FM, Mr Kyei Mensah-Bonsu said irrespective of the fact that it was through a default judgment procured by Mr Woyome that the NDC guru came by the monies, it was a well thought-out and perfectly executed plan with the aid of Betty Mould-Iddrisu and other officials. ��it was through a default judgment passed by the court, which excluded a defense from the state attorney at the time�The Attorney-General never went to court to put up a defense for the nation. There were no explanations from the department to attest that the nation was against the payment and this facilitated the ruling in favour of Mr. Woyome,� he said. The Chief State Attorney, Samuel Nerquaye-Tetteh, who handled the Woyome case and has equally been indicted in the gargantuan fraud, was arrested at the Kotoka International Airport on Saturday on his way out of the country, according to reports monitored on Joy FM. The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) report on the Woyome scandal said the NDC financier manipulated documents and information to defraud the state. Woyome also succeeded in bribing the wife of the Chief State Attorney who was defending the state. The EOCO said, �Mr Woyome put in a claim for an amount which by his own documentary submissions he was not entitled to. �He manipulated documents and information and riding on the negligence (and/or complicity of public officials), managed to receive money which he was clearly not entitled to,� EOCO said. Strangely enough, �it has been detected that from his bank statement that he made a payment of an amount of GH�400, 000 (�4billion) to Gifty Nerquaye-Tettey, the wife of Samuel Nerquaye-Tetteh, the State Prosecutor handling the Woyome case at the Attorney General�s Department on June 16, 2011.�Woyome was last Friday arrested by the police in a Rambo style in traffic at Kokomlemle. He had since been in custody at the Police Criminal Investigations Department (CID) headquarters and expected to be put before court today. Samuel Nerquaye-Tetteh is one of many officials indicted by the Economic and Organised Crimes Office�s interim report, following a probe of their roles in the payment of some GH�51 million to Woyome. He is also being held at the Police Headquarters in Accra. Now that Mr Nerquaye-Tettey is in the grips of the police, Mrs Mould-Iddrisu and others including Paul Asimenu, Director of the Legal Department of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning are expected to follow suit. Osafo Maafo Not On The Run A private legal practitioner, Egbert Faibille, has ruled out the possibility of prosecuting Yaw Osafo Maafo, a former Minister of Education and Sports at the time the stadia rehabilitation contract was awarded as mentioned in the EOCO report. Earlier reports suggested that Mr Osafo Maafo had run away when police operatives stormed his Airport residence on Friday. But sources said nobody visited his house as the NPP chieftain was said to be attending party meeting in Koforidua on that day. Reacting to the revelations in the EOCO report, Mr Faibille said the report has �crystalized into the largest single most corrupt event� and called on the governing party to ensure the indicted government officials face the rigors of the law. �The time is very apt for President Mills to really crack the whip and ensure that the interest of the ordinary taxpayer, the interest of the Ghanaian child�the interest of these people and all of us has to be taken into cognizance by the President and he ought to just order the immediate arrest and prosecution of a number of persons who have clearly brought about this unfortunate and avoidable development in the nation�s history.� To him, if Mr. Osafo Marfo, under whose administration the contract was abrogated, had awarded the contract to Alfred Woyome but refrained from paying the money, then he could have been held liable. He added that the former Attorney General, Betty Mould-Iddrisu, under whose authority the money was disbursed, should be indicted for complicity in the Woyome saga. Free Woyome Meanwhile, a group calling itself the Free Woyome Campaign Movement has emerged demanding the immediate release of Woyome.The �Free Woyome Campaign Movement� says the arrest and detention of the NDC financier was unfair. Its leader, David Tamakloe, told Joy FM that Mr Woyome�s rights were being violated by his continuous detention.