NPP PILES PRESSURE ON MAHAMA OVER WOYOME

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, November 03, 2016

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has urged the electorate to vote out President John Mahama and his National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration for failing to retrieve the GH¢51.2 million it unlawfully paid to Alfred Agbesi Woyome.

According to the NPP, it is planning a massive street protest if President Mahama and his government refuse to retrieve “the full value of our monies.”

 The pressure group OccupyGhana, is also outraged by the Attorney General’s attempt to abandon the retrieval of the money paid to Woyome, said to be the NDC financier.

It has been confirmed that the Attorney General (AG) has filed a notice to discontinue summoning Mr. Woyome to court to give oral evidence on why he has refused to refund the huge amount of money to the state, in spite of the Supreme Court’s order.

The application to withdraw the process that would have seen Mr. Woyome - a leading member of the NDC - back in court to testify on his assets, was said to have been filed on October 26, 2016, sparking outrage in the country.

A statement issued in Accra and signed by NPP Communications Director, Nana Akomea, indicated, “The NPP is horrified and saddened by the report that the Attorney General is not able to pursue anymore the retrieval of taxpayers’ monies paid to Mr. Alfred Woyome, as far back as 2010.”

According to the NPP, “The NDC government itself, as far back as 2009, had admitted that the payments to Mr. Woyome were wrong, unjustified and undeserved. But no NDC official involved in this gargantuan loss of taxpayers’ monies has been punished or prosecuted.

“Per the solo efforts of Mr. Martin Amidu, the Supreme Court in 2014 ordered that the monies should be retrieved, describing the payment as a scheme to ‘create, loot and share’ taxpayers’ monies.  President Mahama and his government did not seek an order for payment with interest, despite the Supreme Court ruling.”

The NPP noted, “Despite this, two years after the order for even the greatly devalued GH¢52.8 million, President Mahama has not managed to retrieve even a PESEWA of the taxpayers’ monies from Mr Woyome. What little hope Ghanaians have that our monies will be retrieved has been dashed by the withdrawal of the Attorney General from further pursuit of the retrieval of the monies.”

The party said, “We cannot let this corruption and wanton loss of taxpayers’ monies just go by. We demand that President Mahama and his government retrieve the full value of our monies otherwise the party intends to lead Ghanaians in street protests. ‘Create, loot and share’ cannot be rewarded. President Mahama must account for our monies or be shown the red card.”