By William Yaw Owusu
Accra, Thursday July 19, 2012.
Barely 24 hours after an Accra High Court rejected his writ to join other respondents in his contempt suit, David Annan, a member of the NDC legal team filed fresh suit citing some political and media personalities for commenting on the never-ending Woyome judgement debt saga.
Woyome through his lawyer is asking the court to commit the respondents to contempt in a further attempt to gag people from speaking about the alleged fraudulent payments made to him.
The current suit filed on July 13, 2012 is citing leading members of the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) including Abu Ramadan and Henry Asante of People’s National Convention (PNC), Bright Acheampong, Davis Opoku of the NPP and Daniel Nii Kwartei Titus-Glover of the Young Patriots.
The media personalities cited are Multimedia Group Limited and its proprietor, Kwesi Twum, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah of Joy FM and Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Managing Editor of the News Crusading Guide.
David Annan who is also a member of the legal team defending Alfred Agbesi Woyome, self styled NDC financier who is on trial over GH¢51.2 million judgement debt wants the court to commit the defendants for contempt for “the deliberate interference in the administration of justice.”
In his 51-point affidavit, Mr. Annan avers on behalf of Woyome that he is the additional counsel for Woyome and Chris Akummey, another member of the NDC legal team in the suits of “The Attorney-General versus Alfred Agbesi Woyome” and “Chris Achmann Akummey versus Mr. J.A. Kufuor and two others.”
According to Woyome; Ramadan, Asante, Acheampong and Opoku “have consistently and persistently been intruding in the court cases, making unsavoury and prejudicial comments.”
He said that “the statements connote that it is wrong to pay judgment debt or to prioritise their payment and therefore a government that is paying court mandated debts is wantonly abusing state loans grants and tax payers’ monies.”
He said the AFAG leaders held a news conference on July 10, 2012 and “brazenly and blatantly passed judgement in pending or filed court cases with deliberate or careless abandon and notified the public of their rulings and judgements.”
The applicant said “the clear and open invitation to the general public is that valid binding court judgements findings and orders should be defied and cast aside on the instructions of the respondents because they have decreed the court orders and judgement debts are tainted with corruption.”
In the case of Multimedia, Kwasi Twum and Oppong Nkrumah, the applicant says they published on their website (Joy FM) the statement read at the news conference and also published a police caution statement of Woyome.
Mr. Annan averred on behalf of Woyome that Oppong Nkrumah aided and abetted Kweku Baako by reading aloud extracts of the police caution statement of Woyome and therefore they “actively facilitated the commission of the interference with legal proceedings.”
He said Multimedia and Nkrumah “actively and intentionally” facilitated the commission of the interference with legal proceedings by Baako when he (Baako) allegedly read out the police caution statement even before it was used in the Woyome’s criminal trial.
He says Baako should be committed for publishing and reading aloud the extract of the police caution statement of Woyome. “That not content with this contumacious conduct the 8th respondent flippantly passed comments on the statement of accused he had read.” On Titus-Glover, Woyome says he presented a petition to the Ghana High Commissioner in London, UK titled “Retrieval of unlawful judgement debt paid.”
“Without any criminal finding against Alfred Woyome of fraud or unprecedented corruption, the 9th respondent made statements in the petition.”
He says that “all respondents have made statement or caused or permitted statements that by their construction meaning, purpose and intent have or are likely to interfere with the course of justice.”
“By inciting public opinion against a party so as to affect his conduct of his case or the assertion of his rights the respondents have put at risk the accused right to fail trial.”
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