Dotse's 'create, loot, share' comment 'misplaced' – Mould

Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Betty Mould-Iddrisu, has described as “misplaced”, the “create, loot and share” comment made by Supreme Court judge Justice Jones Dotse during the hearing of the Woyome and Waterville scandals in 2013.

Mrs Mould-Iddrisu, who has said that one of her lowest moments in life was when she was tagged as a corrupt official, explained in an interview with Radio Gold’s Sammy Eshun on Tuesday, 6 February 2018 that: “I believe that time has tested me and time has not found me wanting”.

“I believe I have lived up to the task and I believe that if you look in any court judgement or any court record, you will not find that there is anything against Betty Mould-Iddrisu apart from my exercise of professional discretion which the courts found were proper.

“Also, the sensationalism, and I’m sure my lawyers, my esteemed counsel Nana Ato Dadzie would not like me to say this, but that sensationalism surrounding this ‘create, loot and share’ obiter which came in one of the Supreme Court decisions, was totally misplaced and it was totally not in the context it should have been and that is the unfortunate aspect for some of us that we are not supposed to be talking and criticising certain people and certain actions and certain institutions, so we keep quiet hoping that the true story will come out and I think piece by piece it is coming out,” the one-time Education Minister noted.

Justice Jones Dotse, a member of the nine-member Supreme Court panel at the time, was not enthused about the cases of judgement debts that were brought before them.

Justice Dotse described the €40million judgment debt paid to Waterville Holdings Ltd. and the GHS51.2million paid to businessman, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, as a carefully orchestrated plan by some individuals, companies and lawyers, who he tagged as a “brigade” formed to loot the country.

On Friday, 14 June 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that Waterville should cough up some €40million that was wrongly paid in judgment debts over three stadia construction projects in 2006.

Justice Dotse stated that Mr Woyome and Waterville appeared to have “entered into an alliance to create, loot and share the resources of this country as if a brigade had been set up for such an enterprise”.