Progressive People's Party (PPP) has called on President John Dramani Mahama to, as matter of urgency, relieve the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, from his post.
That, according to the PPP, will prove the president's “commitment and preparedness to fighting against the cases of high profile corrupt practices in the country.
"We wish to call on his Excellency President John Dramani Mahama, to dismiss the Attorney General as the first step to indicate his (referring to President John Dramani Mahama’s) disappointment with the outcome of the trial case of the financier of the National Democratic Congress (MDC,) Mr. Alfred Agbesie Woyome.
...we say this because the AG is ultimately responsible for the department and her actions are that of the president. The AG's attitude to the Woyome prosecution has been abysmal and has injured the State greatly,” PPP made the call in a press statement.
According to the statement, signed and issued by the party’s National Secretary, Mr. Kofi Asamoah-Siaw, and copied to Today in Accra yesterday, the PPP expressed that it has “learnt with utter dismay the acquittal of Mr. Woyome, a native of Dabala in the Volta region, who was standing trial for obtaining judgement debt of GHC51million through fraudulent means.”
It stressed that the outcome of the trial was “disgraceful and an affront to the fight against corruption.”
The PPP could not fathom why the trial judge, in his decision, indicated that the State prosecutors did a poor job in proving beyond reasonable doubt that Mr. Woyome was indeed guilty of the charges.
The party further said it has also emerged that confidential information, letters and memos were leaked to the legal team of the accused by lawyers or staff of the State.
The PPP wondered why public servants who are paid by the taxpayer and who had sworn to protect the State's resources would betray their livelihood.
“This is where we need our President to act and stem the tide and attitude of thievery, betrayal, disloyalty and increasingly treasonable conducts on the part of public officials,” it said.
It relayed that the president at the last sessional address, bemoaned the attitude of public officials put in charge of State resources whose conduct were injurious to the republic.
"Whilst we sympathise with the president that we all have such an unfortunate situation at hand, we wish to remind the president that he holds the key to fix the situation and reverse this trend.
“…the enormous powers given to the president by the Constitution is to be exercised to obtain the desired accountability from public officials to the people. It is not enough to bemoan the situation or complain about it when the president has the power to cause the desired change," the statement noted. To this end, the statement called on Ghanaians to vote the PPP into power to implement the reforms that will ensure that corruption is fought squarely by establishing an Independent Prosecutor and bringing a moderating influence to bear on public policy.
