Gov�t On �Wild Goose Chase��Over O.B Amoah�s Alleged Complicity In Woyomegate!

Just as the New Crusading GUIDE last year exclusively intercepted an unfinished charge sheet from the Attorney General�s (AG) office which revealed series of charges the State contemplated filing against the EO group, the paper has in a similar fashion laid hands on a charge sheet, showing allegations being leveled against former Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports, Mr. Osei Bonsu Amoah by the Police. Mr. Amoah who is currently on a police enquiry bail was arrested by the police for questioning in connection with his alleged role in the payment of the controversial GH�51 million judgment debt to businessman Alfred Woyome. Mr. Amoah before his arrest last Sunday was a subject of vilification and name-calling by members of the government communication team who accused him of instructing construction firm, Waterville Holdings to move to site ahead of a formal contract for the rehabilitation of the Accra, Kumasi and Elwak sports stadia for CAN 2008. For the particulars of offence the charge sheet described by our legal analysts as legally weak and sloppy reads in parts : �For that you in June 2006 in Accra and within the jurisdiction of this Court did allow yourself to be corrupted by Alfred Agbesi Woyome with an amount of Seventy-Five Ghana Cedis (GH�75,000)�. On that score the former deputy minister has been charged for corruption of public office, in contravention to section 239 (1) of Act 29/60. �For that you in June 2006 in Accra and within the jurisdiction of this court did cause financial loss to the state by ordering Waterville Construction and Engineering limited to move to the construction site when you well knew at the time of giving the order that Waterville had no such contract with the Government of Ghana� stated the charge sheet in line with section 179(a) of Act 29/60. Prosecuting officer, ASP Edward Odame Okyere summed up thus: �Sometime in February 2006, the accused person in his capacity as the Deputy Minister of Science and Sports and in the scheduled officer in charge of the Stadia Projects ordered Waterville Construction Engineering to move to the construction sites in Accra, Kumasi and El-Wak sport stadia when the Government of Ghana had no such contract with Waterville Construction Engineering.� It continued that: With this order, the Government of Ghana lost huge sums of monies amounting to several millions of Ghana Cedis after the contracts were abrogated due to the inability of Waterville Construct to fulfil conditions spelt out to them in the contract. In view of this order, Alfred Agbesi Woyome on behalf of Waterville Construction paid accused an amount of One Hundred Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH�100,000.00) in a form of a paper cheque�. Meanwhile, our high ranking source within the police who is obviously worried about these developments described the charge sheet in question as shallow, saying : �it does not disclose anything. You could have a charge sheet like that sometimes, but, this one is so incompetently done that it does not have to take a lawyer to trace the incompetence. Once you set out a charge there must be basis even if the charge is not detailed. The facts on this charge sheet do not support the charges; in fact, the facts even contradict the charges. The court would always look at the charges and the supporting facts. If you charge a person with willfully causing financial loss to the state you must be able to show the loss. You must identify that the state has lost financially as a result of the person�s willful act�. Mr. Amoah, has so far said that he had never received a bribe from the businessman at the centre of the GhC 51 million judgment debt scandal, Alfred Woyome, to influence his work when he was a government official. He said: �I have never hidden the fact that I know Mr. Woyome� He approached a prominent chief in my constituency at Kitase that he wanted to buy property and the chief was ready to deal with him only through me. The first meeting that we had in the chief�s office he didn�t turn up, he sent his officers for that meeting. Later on the chief was even complaining that because I was involved he had been very lenient and magnanimous in offering that kind of price for the plots of land.�