The Editor in Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper has called for “quick action” in "quarantining" the assets and properties of construction firm Waterville Holdings.
Malik Kweku Baako Jnr said Andrea Orlandi, MD for Waterville must quickly be invited by the police, his passport confiscated as the state attempts to retrieve over €40 million illegally paid in judgement debts to his company.
The New Crusading Guide newspaper editor made the comments on Joy FM news analysis programme, Newsfile, on Saturday.
The comments come a day after the Supreme Court, partly ruled in favour of Citizen vigilante, Martin Amidu in a case brought against Wateville, Alfred Agbesi Woyome and Austro Invest for illegally receiving judgement debt from the state.
Amidu held that the three had no legitimate contract to make any such judgement debt claim against the state.
In a ruling delivered on Friday, the nine member panel unanimously agreed that the monies paid to Waterville were illegal and must be refunded.
Because Alfred Agbesi Woyome is before the High Court on the same issue, the panel stayed a decision on the case brought against Woyome purely on jurisdictional grounds.
They would rather the High Court give its ruling on the matter.
Discussing the issue on Newsfile, Kweku Baako Jnr. said the ruling by the Supreme Court will be rendered useless if the police and other relevant agencies do not take steps to recover the monies from Waterville.
He insisted the assets of Waterville must be confiscated and their MD prevented from moving out of the shores of Ghana.
He said it will be costly to recover the monies from Orlandi if he is allowed to move out from Ghana’s jurisdiction.
Commenting on the substantive matter, Baako said the ruling evokes a feeling of sadness and excitement at the same time.
He was excited that the vigilance of one man, Martin Amidu, had saved the country millions of dollars, but was sad, however, with the state institutions, particularly the Attorney Generals Office, which sat by and watched Ghana’s meager resources be looted with reckless abandon.
He said there were enough documentations available for anybody vigilant to know that the defendants had no contract to make demands from the state.
Citing an August 6, 2006 letter from then Attorney General Joe Ghartey and another on October 28, 2008 by then Chief of Staff Kwadwo Mpiani, Malik Baako indicated it was clear that Waterville, Woyome and Austro Invest had no right to demand a penny in judgement debt from the state.
He was convinced the officials who paid the monies were either negligent or conspired to loot the nation.
Nana Ato Dadzie, lawyer for former Attorney General, Betty Mould Iddrisu, expressed disappointment over the political twist the judgement debt case had taken.
Whilst commending Martin Amidu for his steadfastness, he said there are more of the Amidu's who have shown similar zeal in the fight against corruption.
His client, Betty Mould Iddrisu, had come up for criticisms for negotiating the payments for some of these judgement debts.
Some of these criticisms led to her resignation as Education Minister in January 2012.
But Ato Dadzie said his client acted professionally, and the ruling by the Supreme Court is a vindication of his long held position.
