The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has described the GH¢51.2 million judgement debt to businessman Alfred Woyome as “create, loot and share” and must be retrieved at all cost.
According to the main opposition party, the financier of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) should be paying Gh¢130 m which is today’s equivalent of Gh¢51.2 m (a payment which was made in 2010/2011).
“The NPP calls on all Ghanaians to be vigilant stand up and fight for the payments to Mr. Woyome to be refunded to the State. GHC51.2m in 2010/ 2011 is today worth over GHC130m per the prevailing exchange rate,” the communications director of the NPP Nana Akomea said at a press briefing, Tuesday.
“Per the Supreme Court ruling, there is no basis for the payments, and the payments were in pursuit of an agenda to create, loot and share. Per the government’s own suit against Woyome, the payments were a mistake. Ghanaians should therefore demand the prosecution of all officials who facilitated this “mistake” or this create, loot and share. Enough is enough.”
Below is the full statement:
Ladies and Gentlemen, the High Court acquittal of Mr. Woyome last Thursday 12th March, 2015 vindicates the NPP’s, and indeed many Ghanaians, long held position that the criminal trial of Mr. Woyome was just a “show trial” to throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians, and that the payment of the colossal amount of GHC51.2m ($36.5m or over GHC135m today) to Mr. Woyome was simply a ploy by government to steal taxpayers’ monies.
It is instructive that the trial Judge described the effort by the government to prosecute Mr. Woyome as “shoddy”, “lackadaisical” and “a complete waste of time”. Indeed, the attempt at the criminal prosecution was so shoddy that the testimonies of some state prosecution witnesses were actually used by Mr. Woyome’s defense as vindication of their (Woyome’s) case.
The trial Judge’s comments are also in consonance with comments by Supreme Court justices in the civil case. The Supreme Court also held that there was “absolutely” no basis for the payments to Messrs. Woyome and Waterville, and that it should have been clear to anyone that the claims cannot hold water. One Supreme Court Justice concluded that the payments could only be in pursuit of an agenda to “create, loot and Share.”
That the government of Ghana, entrusted with the peoples’ mandate to govern, could perpetuate such a gargantuan fraud on the poor people of Ghana is mind boggling. The facts and process surrounding the payments to Mr. Woyome most clearly demonstrate connivance and collusion, without which motive, the payments defy logic.
SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
Source: GhanaWeb
