The Axe Must Fall

The Economic and Organized Crimes Office (EOCO) has released its interim report on investigations into the payment of judgment debts since January 7, 2009, particularly the payment to businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome. The Attorney –General and Minister of Justice swung into action immediately, on receipt of a copy of the report, and advised the President accordingly. Based on this, the security agencies too wasted, no time in picking up Alfred Woyome, Mr. Samuel Nerquaye –Tetteh, the Chief State Attorney, who has been in direct charge of the Woyome case, and Mr. Paul Asimenu, Director at the Legal Department of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, who has all been implicated by the report.

Charges has also been preferred against Mrs Gifty Nerquaye-Tetteh, wife of the Chief State Attorney, Samuel Nerquaye-Tetteh, whose account was credited with an amount of GH¢400,000 by Mr Alfred Woyome for no work done, according to the EOCO report.

The security agencies are also on the heels of all those who are said to have misconducted themselves in the payment of the GH¢51.2m judgment debt to Mr. Woyome, who the report said does not deserve the money paid to him.

The EOCO’S report clearly shows that the matter is purely criminal, and should not be politicized as it has been done since it became public. It is not a matter between the NDC and the NPP or the NDC or any other political party. It is simply a display of roguery and irresponsibility by some public officers, past and present, and some private people in the illegal claim of money by one greedy man. I also share the view, just like any concerned Ghanaian, that it is immoral, criminal and unfeeling by any government to make illegal payment of such huge money which could go into infrastructural development and provision of other amenities to one man for no work done.

It is for this reason that President Mills directed the EOCO to delve into the circumstances under which the money was paid. Now, the interim report of EOCO is giving the whole country a picture of how the payment was made, and who did what.

So far, the report does not establish the complicity of the government with President Mills as the head, or the National Democratic Congress (NDC) as the party in power, in the whole Woyome saga.

The actions and inactions of public officers and individuals in the Woyome case, who are not in government, should not be attributed to the state. Instead, Ghanaians should look at what the report exposes, which we should all condemn and guard against.

Is it not intriguing that Alfred Agbesi Woyome should pay a woman who had no hand whatsoever in the handling of his case, as much as GH¢400,000? The EOCO detected that from his bank statement, Woyome paid Mrs. Gifty Nerquaye-Tetteh the money on June 16, 2011.

For what did Woyome pay her the money? Is it in payment for her husband’s (Mr. Samuel Nerquaye-Tetteh, Chief State Attorney, in charge of Woyome case) “unconscionable” decision not to go to court to defend the government’s position against his ( Woyomes ) claim?

The EOCO also found that a public officer at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, assumed a role which helped in creating the conditions which made it possible for Woyome to get paid what he clearly was not due. These disclosures justify the assignment given to EOCO. If the facts, as they have been disclosed, had been made public and the interlopers exposed right from the time the issue became public, the politicization of the Woyome case would not have arisen.

Now, every doubt about what happened in the Woyome case is becoming clearer and clear: no political party has been fingered and, therefore, the accusation and counter- accusations between the NDC and the NPP must cease, while the court we continue with the judicial process.

The politicians must study the EOCO report critically, and see how public officers mislead governments and sabotage them.

As for Woyome, he has made his position clear on the matter. He has given an undertaking to a court that he would refund any money paid him by the state in case he lost the action after the final determination. And so he knows what to expect.

I hope that the momentum with which the security agencies started their work will be maintained, and that the axe will fall where necessary, because the Woyome case has provoked unnecessary debate and show of insolence. I shall be back!

Emmanuel Dela Coffie

www.delacoffie.wordpress.com