Sole Commissioner fires Woyome boy

JUSTICE YAW Apau, the Sole Commissioner investigating the inordinate payment of judgement debts by the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), has lashed out at the man claiming to be the spokesperson for the embattled business man, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, who is embroiled in a judgment debt scandal.

The sole commissioner virtually scolded Woyome’s spokesperson, Reginald Seth Dogbey, for wrongly attacking his commission’s counsel about a fortnight ago after officials of Consar and Waterville, two companies also connected to the Woyome scandal, denied dealing with the beleaguered business man who is currently in court for fraudulently receiving GH¢51.2 million as judgement debt.

Justice Apau’s ‘Commission of Enquiry into the payment of Judgement Debt and Akin’ under C.I. 79 is to investigate the frivolous and dubious payments of huge monies to undeserving individuals and companies, totalling about $640 million.

The sole commissioner was appointed by President John Dramani Mahama after public uproar over the payments in what has now come to be termed as Judgement Debts (JD).

Notable among them were payments made to CP (€94 million) and the never-ending case of GH¢51.2million parted to the self-styled NDC financier, Alfred Woyome, both of which many believed were dubious and frivolous.

Even though some of the cases are pending in court, the sole commissioner has been tasked with the responsibility to investigate all judgement debt cases to unravel the circumstances that led to the payments.

Woyome’s spokesperson Dogbey had accused counsel for the sole commissioner, Dometi Kofi Sokpor, of making public comments on the scandal that his boss was not happy about.

According to him, Woyome had never said anywhere that he was an official of Waterville or Michelleti or Consar and for the sole commissioner’s counsel to say something to the contrary was “shocking”.

But Justice Apau, yesterday, protested during the ongoing probe into the judgement debt payment, insisting that his counsel was wrongly attacked by “somebody who claimed to be the spokesperson for Woyome”.

He slammed Woyome’s spokesperson for wrongly attacking counsel on issues that he (Dogbey) did not personally witness.

“The other time, my lawyer was attacked wrongly by somebody who claimed to be a spokesperson for Woyome when the person himself did not know what transpired before this commission, attributing evidence led by others to the counsel for the commission.

“If a company comes to say we do not know Woyome, he was not part of our agreement with government and outside the process, the press was interviewing the lawyer and he just quoted what the people said, and then you go on air and attack the lawyer as if it was the lawyer who said Woyome was not part of the agreement”, Justice Apaw fired Woyome’s spokesperson.

The attack, according to him, was unwarranted especially when Woyome himself had said he had no contract with the government.

Justice Apaw made the comments after the CEO of Margins Group of Companies, Moses Kwesi Baiden Jnr, who appeared before the Commission had complained about a story carried by state-owned Ghanaian Times that his companies did not have a valid contract with Ghana@ 50 Secretariat for the supply of one million anniversary calendars and yet he went to court to claim judgment debt.

Looking for Truth

Describing the attack as unfair, the sole commissioner said “we are just an independent investigative body, we are investigating the issues. We have no strings. We want the truth; we want the right thing to be done in the country. I want the economy, finances and the kitty to be protected and used properly, that is our money.

“We want to look out for the loopholes and recommend so that we proceed. That is the mandate of the commission,” Justice Apaw stated.

He told witnesses not to see themselves as targets for prosecution, stressing, “Nobody is a target. This Commission was not intended to target anybody for prosecution or otherwise, we want to look out for what has happened, what went wrong and why that wrong went on and how it could be remedied.”

“When you are invited before this commission, what we want from you is what you know factually about the issue, so that we too we can advice the government properly about what is happening,” Justice Apaw reminded witnesses.

Wrong Tagging

The sole commissioner lamented about the manner in which individuals appointed to perform public duties were wrongly branded as party people.

“It is sad that in the country, when any institution or body is called to find out something, depending upon the government in power, you are tagged.

“If you are appointed during President Kufuor’s time to look into certain things, you are branded, ‘oh, this is an NPP man’. If you are appointed say either President Atta Mills or President Mahama’s time to go into certain things, ‘the person appointed into this, oh he is an NDC’ and ‘this is the country in which we live’.

“It is sad because there are people who think of the country no matter who is in power,” Justice Apau concluded.