[ 2016-11-03 ]

GHS51m saga: Govt shielding Woyome: Azeem
The Government is not interested in collecting the
GHS51 million from businessman Alfred Woyome
probably because he is a financier of the
governing party, anti-graft campaigner Vitus Azeem
has said.

“I don’t know whether they are scared or they
don’t have the moral courage but all that has
happened point to the fact that they do not want
to collect the money. This is not a new thing,
this thing has been on for several years and is it
this time that they want to meet him again and
negotiate? I mean it all points to the fact that
the government is not interested in getting this
money for us and that is unfortunate,” Mr Azeem
told Chief Jerry Forson on Accra100.5FM’s
breakfast show Ghana Yensom on Thursday, 3 October
in relation to the Attorney General’s decision
to discontinue the case.

“It’s an additional indication that government
is not very serious about this because … it is
the duty of the Attorney General to recover those
monies to comply with the judgment of the Supreme
Court,” he said.

Asked if he could hazard a guess about why the AG
may be going on that tangent, Mr Azeem said:
“Well I can only speculate. This man [Woyome],
you people in the media have described as a
financier of the NDC, and if the person is a
financier of a party, a ruling party, we cannot be
sure that some of these monies did not go into
funding the party or that they do not want to hurt
him because he is a financier of the party. But
that is just speculation. The AG may have her own
reasons. I don’t know.”

Meanwhile, pressure group OccupyGhana has
expressed its disappointment with the Attorney
General over moves to discontinue the case.

In a press statement, OccupyGhana said it was
“shocked, horrified and disgusted to discover
that, as we suspected and feared, there is a
current attempt by the Attorney-General of the
Republic of Ghana to abandon or discontinue the
current recovery steps being taken to compel
Alfred Woyome to disclose where his assets are and
possibly how he disbursed the GHS51, 000,000 of
our money, so that it can be returned to Ghana. We
have seen a ‘Notice of Discontinuance’ filed
by the Attorney-General on 26th October 2016,
‘discontinuing the present application to orally
examine’ Woyome.”

It would be recalled that a civil motion was filed
by former Attorney-General and Minister of
Justice, Mr. Martin Alamisi Amidu, in October
2014, against the Attorney-General, Waterville
Holdings (BVI) Limited, and Mr. Woyome for the
recovery of GHS51.2million.

Mr. Woyome collected the money from the state as
judgement debt, following the failure of the New
Patriotic Party (NPP) administration to pay his
percentage for spearheading a financial
engineering crusade from Bank Austria towards the
construction of new stadia in the build up to CAN
2008.

Even though he was exonerated from all criminal
charges, he is supposed to refund the monies back
to the state.

In view of that an affidavit was filed by the A-G
asking the Apex Court to order the defendant (Mr
Woyome) to appear before it on Thursday, November
10, at 9:00 am, “to be examined orally on oath
by the A-G whether Mr Woyome has any property or
other means of satisfying the judgement debt”.

But OccupyGhana said it feels that authorities are
not committed to retrieving the monies wrongly
paid to the businessman due to the “Notice of
Discontinuance” in examining Mr Woyome on how he
will be paying the monies back.

Below is the full statement:

OCCUPYGHANA® PRESS STATEMENT

OCCUPYGHANA® SHOCKED AT ATTORNEY-GENERAL’S
ATTEMPT TO LET WOYOME KEEP OUR GH₵ 51M.

OccupyGhana® is shocked, horrified and disgusted
to discover that, as we suspected and feared,
there is a current attempt by the Attorney-General
of the Republic of Ghana to abandon or discontinue
the current recovery steps being taken to compel
Alfred Woyome to disclose where his assets are and
possibly how he disbursed the GH₵ 51,000,000
of OUR MONEY, so that it can be returned to Ghana.
We have seen a “Notice of Discontinuance”
filed by the Attorney-General on 26th October
2016, “discontinuing the present application to
orally examine” Woyome.

It would be recalled that on 25th October 2016, we
issued a statement pointing to the refreshingly
far-reaching order of the Supreme Court directed
at Woyome to appear and testify on his assets. On
the basis of the application moved and the order
given, Woyome would be compelled by the court to
make the following disclosures:

1. Whether there are any debts owing to him,

2. Whether he has any property for satisfying the
judgment,

3. Whether he has any other means of satisfying
the judgment, and

4. Whether he used the monies paid to him by the
Republic of Ghana in any investments within or
outside Ghana.

We can now reveal that we issued that statement
because we had heard that after the order was
obtained and served on Woyome, immense pressure
was brought to bear on the Attorney-General’s
Department to abandon that process. The key
concern, we learnt, had to do with Woyome being
compelled to disclose how he spent OUR MONEY,
because the answer to that question would reveal
the names of all the persons who benefitted from
OUR MONEY. What we did not believe at the time was
that on the very next day after our statement, the
Attorney-General would so easily cave in to the
pressure and abandon probably the only option left
to Ghana to recover OUR MONEY from Woyome.

It is clear to us that this Government and its
Attorney-General are either scared of Woyome or do
not have the moral courage to pursue him for OUR
MONEY. We cannot forget that this Government
deliberately bungled the civil case it reluctantly
filed to claim the money from Woyome, and secretly
paid the money to him at a time when that case was
still pending, and when the court had allowed the
Government to hold on to at least two-thirds of
the money. We cannot forget that but for the
admirable and sacrificial vigilance and work of
Mr. Martin Amidu, Woyome might never have been
compelled to refund OUR MONEY. What we have seen,
since that judgment, is probably the slowest,
tardiest and most reluctant enforcement steps in
this history of this nation. Ghanaians are now
being told that the affluent Woyome, who took and
splurged OUR GH₵ 51,000,000 as if it was
some pocket change, is now broke, has sold all his
assets and there is nothing against which we can
recover OUR MONEY. This farcical and ludicrous
position confirms that this Government has no
interest in recovering OUR MONEY. We suspect that
any attempt to trace those monies would make some
persons in this Government very uncomfortable.

But if the Attorney-General thought that she had
nailed this coffin and kissed OUR MONEY goodbye,
she got this wrong; dead wrong. Three reasons:

First, there is no pending application for one to
be discontinued. That application has been moved
and granted already. What there is now is a valid
and subsisting order of the Supreme Court, which
cannot be discontinued by any party. Until it is
set aside or vacated by the Supreme Court itself,
that order remains. We expect that on 10th
November 2016, Woyome will still show up in court.
If he refuses to show up, the Supreme Court could
compel his attendance.

Second, technically, Woyome is a witness of the
court, having been summoned on the orders of the
court. Thus, even if the Attorney-General refuses
to attend the 10th November 2016 proceedings to
examine Woyome, the Supreme Court itself has the
power to ask those relevant questions, and Woyome
would be compelled to answer them and provide all
the information required.

Third, and thank God, Mr. Martin Amidu is still
alive and well, and is still a party to the court
action. He has every right to appear in court on
10th November and seek the permission of the court
to examine Woyome, whether the Attorney-General
shows up or not.

While expressing our disgust at this shameful
tactic, we are confident that the Supreme Court,
which has proven to be the last bastion in the
fight against corruption, will not let the people
of this country down. Although the Supreme Court
may be our last hope, we encourage all
well-meaning Ghanaians to make their voices heard
on this. Ultimately, we own this nation and elect
leaders to serve us. When those leaders fail us,
we need to speak up and compel them by the sheer
force of our existence and convictions, to act.
May this be another defining and watershed moment
when the people of Ghana rise up, again and in
unison, to demand that the right thing is done. We
need OUR MONEY back. WE OWE THAT TO POSTERITY!!

Source - classfmonline.com

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