Anti-corruption campaigner, Martin Alamisi Amidu, should have been put in the witness box to proof why he thinks President John Mahama was behind government’s discontinuance of an oral examination of Alfred Agbesi Woyome, the man behind the controversial GHc51 million judgment.
A member of the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) legal team, Abraham Amaliba, said this in an interview with Citi News. “This is the same allegation that Martin Amidu could not substantiate.
I was of the view that Martin Amidu should have been kept in the witness box for him to prove this allegation that the President had authorized the Attorney General not to cross examine Woyome, that for me could have been a perfect situation but he was left of the hock,” he said.
Mr. Amaliba made the comment in response to claims by Mr. Amidu that the President was intimidating him ahead of his oral examination of Woyome. Mr. Amidu was last week granted permission by the Supreme Court to examine the businessman after the Attorney General (AG) discontinued the case to quiz Mr. Woyome on the judgment debt saga despite serving an earlier notice.
The anti-corruption campaigner, who is also a former Attorney General, had prior to the Supreme Court’s ruling accused the president of personally directing the AG to discontinue the case. In his latest outburst, he has also accused President John Mahama of intimidating him ahead of the oral examination. “The conduct of the President convinces me as a senior and foundation member of the governing NDC, that he would do everything in his power to ensure that the examination orally on oath of the lootee for whom his Government looted the public purse, may not come on 24th November 2016,” he said in his latest epistle. But Amaliba argued that,Mr. Amidu is going on that tangent in a bid to pitch Ghanaians against the President ahead of the elections.
“For me, I think that it is much ado about nothing, it is about his crusade to get the President Mahama removed from office. And he made that clear last week when he said that the only way we could get this money back is to vote President Mahama out, and in furtherance of that, he is throwing in all manner of things and thinking that the people will consume it; but the people are discerning.”
Court strikes out Martin Amidu’s ‘false claim’ against Mahama
The Supreme Court in its ruling also dismissed Amidu’s claim that President Mahama personally ordered the discontinuation of the application by the Attorney General to examine Woyome.
Background
Alfred Woyome was paid ¢51 million after he claimed that he helped Ghana to raise funds to construct stadia for purposes of hosting the CAN 2008 Nations Cup. However an Auditor General’s report released in 2010, said the amount was paid illegally to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) financier.
The Supreme Court in 2014 ordered Mr. Woyome to pay back ¢51 million fraudulently taken from the state, after Mr. Martin Amidu, a former Attorney General challenged the legality of the judgment debt paid the businessman, Waterville, and Isofoton. Following delays in retrieving the money, the Supreme Court judges unanimously granted the Attorney-General clearance to execute the court’s judgment ordering Mr. Woyome to refund the cash to the state.
Woyome prevents officials from valuing residence
Mr. Woyome in April 2016 prevented officials of the Attorney General’s Department and the Lands Commission from having access to his Kpehe residence for valuation. The move was part of a directive from the Supreme Court to retrieve monies illegally paid to him.
But Woyome resisted the move, saying the planned valuation was illegal. Mr. Woyome had earlier won the criminal prosecution that sought to imprison him for the offence.
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