CAN 2008 Judgment Debt Saga (Part 5)

Why NPP Gags Osafo Maafo, O.B Amoah

…from exposing Kufour’s GH¢58 million financial loss to the state

By: Winson V. A. Addotey The main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) is certainly panicking over the scandal that would emerge from the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) investigations which would expose the party and Kufour for causing colossal sum of GH¢58 million judgment debt and other debts to the state.

Fearing for the huge political blows the NPP would eventual suffer in the long run, the party has directed its members not respond to the EOCO invitation. As a result, Mr Osafo Maafo, the former Education and Sports Minister, and his former Deputy Osei Bonsu, who may be hiding something ‘substantially criminal’ in relation to the loss of the amount, have been warned not appear before EOCO for questioning.

On Tuesday, Mr Osafo Maafo, turned down an invitation extended to him by the EOCO and headed to Court, seeking to restrain the EOCO from investigating his involvement in the judgment debt, claiming that he would not get fair hearing from the EOCO in that some government officials have made “prejudicial comments about him.” It would be recalled that an Accra High Court, Commercial Division, has ruled and ordered the state to pay Consul Alfred Agbesi Woyome a judgment debt, following former President Kufour’s abrupt termination of contract for the rehabilitation and construction of four stadia ahead of the African Cup of Nations (CAN) 2008 tournament in Ghana.

The judgment debt has into controversies and subsequent to that the President John Evans Atta Mills directed the EOCO to find out the circumstances leading to the loss of aforementioned amount. He also ordered the EOCO to make public all the beneficiaries of the judgment debts since his administration came into office. A couple of people have appeared before the EOCO including Akyena Brentuo. But Osafo Maafo, a former Member of Parliament for Akim-Oda, in the Eastern region, has filed a suit at an Accra High court seeking “a declaration that the purported investigations being undertaken by the defendant (EOCO) into the so-called ‘suspected serious offences including fraud in the award and execution of the contract for the construction of stadia for CAN 2008’ and the invitation of plaintiff (himself) herein to assist defendant in those investigations are unlawful to the extent that they are issues raised in a report of the Auditor-General duly laid before Parliament.”

According to Mr Osafo Maafo, “As far back as April and May 2010, in various correspondences on the payment to Alfred Woyome in satisfaction of an alleged breach of contract for the performance of financial engineering services allegedly rendered to the government of Ghana from 2001 to 2006, the then Attorney-General, Betty Mould-Iddrisu, wrote to the Minister of Finance and notified the President through the Chief of Staff about the payment to Alfred Woyome”.

Also, Mr. O.B. Amoah, who is due to appear on January 17, 2012, has followed the footsteps of his former boss. The MP for Aburi-Nsawam in the Eastern Region has stated categorically that he would not appear before the EOCO. Meanwhile, Mr Kweku Mortey Akpadzi, head of the EOCO, who was speaking to Citi news yesterday in an interview, was not perturbed by the lawless position the NPP has taken against the investigation.

“We are established by the law and we operate within the law. We have the authority to do what we are doing. We don’t take instruction from anybody. Our duties go beyond fact finding. Some have come to testify,” he said. Source: The Crystal Clear Lens