Lawyer hails Mahama for role in the prosecution of Abuga Pele and Philip Assibit

Private legal practitioner and a member of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Yaw Osei has hailed former President John Dramani Mahama for having the balls to initiate the prosecution process of the former Member of Parliament (MP) for Chiana-Paga, Abuga Pele and businessman, Philip Assibit were are serving a 6 and 12 year jail term respectively.

“Kudos to John Dramani Mahama for having the boldness to prosecute his own people”, Nana Yaw Osei posted on his Facebook wall.

“That is a fact”, the NPP communication team member of the party in the Ashanti Region added.

A High Court convicted a former top government official, Abuga Pele and a private service provider, Philip Assibit, after they were found guilty of 19 counts including dishonestly causing financial loss to the state.

The Court was satisfied that the prosecution had proved 13 of the 19 counts Abuga Pele faced ranging from aiding and abetting crime to willfully causing financial loss to the state.

Some of the counts included intentionally misapplying public property and dishonestly causing loss to public property.

His counterpart Philip Akpeena Assibit who was CEO of Goodwill International Ghana (GIG) was found guilty of six of the 19 counts he faced including defrauding by false pretence.

The two have since 2014 been before the court. Mr Assibit is accused of putting in a false claim for payments to the tune of 3.3million cedis as services provided the then GYEEDA.

This included developing an exit program and securing a grant of 65million cedis from the World Bank.

However, Lawyer Kwaku Paintsil, counsel for Philip Assibit has indicated he’ll file an appeal of the sentence against his client at the Court of Appeal.

According to him, he’ll pursue the appellate court to set aside the ruling by the High Court.