The National Chairman of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr. Kwabena Adjei and the National Propaganda Secretary of the party, Richard Quashigah, stormed the Police Headquarters on Friday afternoon following the arrest of NDC financier Alfred Woyome on the orders of President John Evans Atta Mills.
Dr Kwabena Adjei, was spotted entering the Police Headquarters in a Toyota Land Cruiser a little after half past 3pm.
It is not clear the nature of the visit but one can safely presume it was to offer some form of moral support for the embattled NDC bankroller.
The NDC financier was arrested less than 24 hours after the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) presented the report of its findings into the GHc51m judgment debt which was paid to Mr. Agbesi Woyome.
The head of EOCO, Mr. Mortey Akpadzi, on Thursday presented an Interim Report to President Mills which stated that Mr. Woyome manipulated documents and information in order to receive what is now termed as “gargantuan” judgment debts paid to an individual.
The report said Mr. Woyome rode on the negligence and complicity of public officials to dupe the state of “money which he was clearly not entitled to”, adding that an amount of GhC400, 000 was “paid to the wife of Mr. Nerquaye-Tetteh [Chief State Attorney ] on June 16, 2011” but failed to mention reasons behind that payment.
Peacefmonline can confirm that Mr Woyome was arrested on his way to work on Friday and was virtually forced out of his car in traffic on the Caprice road by plain-clothes security officers, a move which the Concerned NDC Members group is unenthused about.
According to Hajia Sherifatu, the security officers who claimed to be from the Bureau of National Investigations were riding in three unmarked or private cars and appeared quite intimidating.
“We are unhappy at the mode of his arrest because he is not an armed robber…he is not wanted for any criminal act…They blocked Woyome’s car with one of their unmarked cars when traffic slowed, stepped out from the vehicles, unhooked their weapons and simply told him (Woyome) that he was needed at the headquarters…they looked very menacing and I wonder why they should treat him like that since he is no criminal…It was a court of competent jurisdiction that ruled in his favour so why all this? Woyome is not an armed robber…if it is that you want to arrest him is that the way to go about it?” She asked.
The Spokesperson of the group that recently organised a demonstration in support of the beleaguered NDC guru with a call for the arrest of ex-president Kufuor and other members of his cabinet, also confirmed reports that she and a couple of her friends were picked up by the police when they stormed the CID headquarters.
“My brother, the funny aspect of this is that we were in a group including some gentlemen but the police arrested only five of us who were females and placed us in cells,” Hajia Sherifatu lamented.
In a related development, Head of Operations at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, Chief Superintendent Frank Kwofie, has confirmed Mr Woyome's arrest but declined to give further details.
He also declined to say whether or not other persons implicated in the EOCO report would be picked up for questioning.
Meanwhile, Woyome’s lawyers are frantically trying to secure bail for him as of 6 p.m. Friday, but it appears he might spend the weekend in the custody of the police. The country’s security agencies, especially the police, are known to keep suspects arrested on Fridays in cells throughout the weekend and processed for court on Monday.
The practice of holding suspects in cells throughout the weekend has faced several condemnations but still goes unheeded.
Mr Woyome is likely to face charges said to border on ‘defrauding by false pretenses’.
