Woyome In London

Ghana’s most controversial and abrasive state payment to an individual, the Woyome judgment saga, made a mammoth appearance in London last Friday when petition-armed Ghanaians marched to the High Commission.

A large number of Ghanaians resident in the United Kingdom joined by members of the local branch of the Young Patriots, a pressure group calling for the return of the GH¢51.2million paid to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) financier, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, ignored a mild downpour and made their way to the Ghana High Commission, chanting their dismay at the manner in which the issue had been handled so far by the Mills/Mahama administration.

For effect, the demonstrators blocked all entrances to the facility as they waited for the High Commissioner, Prof Kwaku Danso-Boafo, who was not present when they reached the place.

Prof Danso-Boafo, who had earlier asked the majority of the mission staff not to turn up for work on that day, was compelled to come and give audience to the picketers and receive their petition which they copied a number of organisations including the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

“We have been dumbfounded ever since it became public that over GH¢600 million has been paid in the name of judgment debts to people and organisations who have done no work whatsoever for the country,” they pointed out in their petition.

The area around the premises of the Consulate on Highgate Hill where passport and visa applications are processed was a beehive of activities as the angry Ghanaians among who were journalists from various Ghanaian local radio stations, chanted their frustration.

The few mission officials at post refused to allow the journalists to tap electricity from the building for their live broadcasts, a situation which necessitated their resorting to nearby buildings for power at a cost though.

Titled, ‘Retrieval Of Unlawful Judgment Debt’, the petition expressed, as they put it, their “frustration, disappointment and disgust concerning the recent happenings in Ghana under the present government”.

Turning specifically to Alfred Agbesi Woyome, they pointed out that he defrauded the nation to the tune of GH¢51.2million, adding that “the construction company, CP, has also been given over €94,000,000 as confirmed by the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee.”

Such levels of corruption, they noted, was robbing Ghana of her respectability in the international community, a situation they described as “state sponsored unprecedented corruption under the purview of a Law Professor, President J.E.A. Mills.”

They expressed misgivings about the commitment of the Mills/Mahama government to retrieve what they called the gargantuan money.

For them, the money was intentionally paid by the Mills/Mahama administration to some unscrupulous people in the country without justification.

“We Ghanaian residents in the UK are hereby today petitioning your good offices to impress upon the government to retrieve these sums doled out illegally through the conscienceless officials to these people and organisations without any regard for morality,” they stated in the petition.

They made a number of demands, among them an invitation of former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Martin Amidu as a prosecution witness, in the Alfred Agbesi Woyome case, due to his knowledge and facts he had on the case.

The petitioners also asked for the immediate dismissal of Deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice Ebo Barton-Odro, Valerie Sawyerr and Alex Segbefia both deputy Chiefs of Staff, among other government officials.

“We are urging President Mills as a matter of urgency to compel the Attorney General to prosecute Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, for her negligence and lack of due diligence,” they added.

The retrieval of the money already paid and which remained a sore political issue in the country, they noted, would address Ghana’s infrastructural challenges.