By William
Yaw Owusu
Friday March
02, 2018
Special Prosecutor, Martin Alamisi Burns Kaiser
Amidu, has reportedly hit the ground running by going for details of a high-profile
corruption case that rocked the country in 2011.
Details are sketchy, but information reaching DAILY GUIDE indicates that the Special
Prosecutor, who is noted for his stance on corruption issues, appears to have settled
on the Woyome GH¢51.2 million scandal as his first national assignment.
The paper learnt that Mr Amidu, a former Attorney
General and Minister of Justice, has taken over the official files from the
investigative authorities and is set to charge all those who might be
implicated in the scandal.
Other
Accomplices
He has always maintained that the National Democratic
Congress (NDC) financier, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, should not go down alone in the
infamous judgment debt scandal; and recently at his vetting, he reiterated the
same position.
“If we are going to prosecute, we should prosecute
everybody involved and not Woyome alone,” Mr. Amidu had maintained at the
Appointments Committee of Parliament on February 13.
The NDC bankroller, who fraudulently walked away
with GH¢51.2 million for no work done, was said to have been aided by some
staff of the Attorney General’s Department under Betty Mould-Iddrisu.
Some of the payments went into bank accounts of some
staff at the Department and their wives, as well as some NDC gurus.
Pre-Election
Bombshell
A few days to the December 7, 2016 general elections
which saw the defeat of Mahama’s NDC government, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) released
a list containing the alleged beneficiaries of Mr. Woyome’s booty.
The GH¢51.2 million was fraudulently paid to the NDC
man in 2010 by the Mills/Mahama NDC government on the instructions of then
Attorney General, Betty Mould Iddrisu, and her deputy, Ebo Barton-Odro.
The late Professor Kofi Awoonor, who was the
Chairman of the Council of State, allegedly received Woyome’ s booty.
He was said to have received a cheque for GH¢75,000;
Johnson Asiedu Nketia, General Secretary of the NDC, GH¢20,000; Ade Coker,
Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the party, GH¢30,000 and Koku Anyidoho,
Deputy General Secretary, GH¢113,000.
More
Revelations
“On 8th February 2011, the NDC Greater Accra
Regional Chairman, in a receipt, penned in his own handwriting, Mr Ade Coker
was given GH¢30,000 by Woyome. The handwritten receipt reads, ‘Received from
Consul Afred Woyome an amount of GH¢30,000.00,’ Signed Ade Coker 8/2/11. Asiedu
Nketia is also listed as a beneficiary of the Woyome cash. For example, on 2nd
September, 2011, he personally received GH¢20,000 from Mr Woyome. It was a cash
cheque with serial number 727292,” the NPP stated.
The rest are Kwesi Pratt, Managing Editor of Insight newspaper, GH¢2,000; Steve Kpodzi,
former Managing Director of ADB, GH¢60,000; Alhassan Sayibu Suhuyini of Radio Gold, GH¢8,000 and Jewel Ackah, a
musician, GH¢60,000.
Woyome also allegedly gave GH¢15,000 to the NDC
office in Hohoe, Volta Region; GH¢42,000 to the party for the purchase of
motorbikes; GH¢30,000 to renovate (NDC) party office and another GH¢1 million
to the same party.
“On 15th February, 2011, a one-million Ghana-cedi
cheque was paid into the Unibank Ghana Ltd account of the NDC. We have a copy
of the exact ADB cheque, which carries the No. 230051. Woyome's bank statement
shows that that cheque was cleared the very next day,” the party claimed.
Presidential
Trips
“On May Day (May 1, 2011), Koku Anyidohu received
from Woyome personally a cash cheque of GH¢13,000, with No. 809093. A few days
after, on 10th May, 2011, Woyome again gave Koku Anyidoho an amount of
GH¢100,000 and the purpose is stated as ‘Koku’s Trip With President (Mills).’
“There is also payment of GH¢60,000 from Woyome to
Steve Kpordzie, who was at the time the Managing Director of ADB. This raises
serious questions over propriety. What did the Bank Manager do to deserve a
cash payment of that colossal amount?
“In fact, the Speaker of Parliament, Doe Adjaho, is
also listed as receiving GH¢10,000 from Woyome from cheque No. 727745,” the NPP
revealed.
Amidu’s
Efforts
It was Mr Amidu’s efforts that led to the
declaration by the Supreme Court that Mr Woyome should be made to refund the
huge amount he unlawfully took from the state.
It was also in the course of delivering the Supreme
Court judgement that a member of the panel - Justice Jones Victor Dotse -
described the deal as a case of ‘create, loot and share,’ which has become a
negative political mantra used against the NDC ever since - to connote the
supposed corrupt deals of the party.
Criminal
Trial
Bizarrely, a criminal trial mounted against Mr.
Woyome collapsed after the high court judge, John Ajet-Nassam, acquitted and
discharged him for lack of evidence.
During his vetting, Mr. Amidu (fondly called Citizen
Vigilante for his anti-corruption posture) had said, “As Attorney General, I
had said that Woyome cannot be prosecuted alone and that all his accomplices
must be prosecuted.”
He stopped short of naming the accomplices, but said
that as the AG he met his staff to deliberate on the Woyome issues and “they
all agreed that part of the fault is from this house (the Attorney General’s
Department).”
He had also said that the Woyome case was the main reason
why the NDC hounded him out of office as the AG, claiming, “If I had prosecuted
that case, together with the accomplices, the result would have been different
and my perception is that the prosecution was bundled to get that guy out.”
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