Woyome walks as High Court frees him of criminal charges

by Kwabena Opong

Alfred Agbesi Woyome, the man at the center of a judgment payment scandal was on Thursday, March 12 acquitted and discharged by an Accra Commercial High Court for criminal intent in receiving a payment of 51.2 million Ghana cedis (approximately US$15 million).
Woyome was first arrested on February 3, 2012 after the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) had implicated him for wrongdoing in receiving the money fraudulently.
Prior to the criminal trial Woyome had been ordered by the Supreme Court to refund the money paid to him after former Attorney General Martin Amidu questioned his intent in suing for the money from the government after admitting he had no proof that the government of Ghana owed him that amount of money.
The state followed up with a criminal case against him at the High Court and charged him with causing financial loss to the the state and defrauding by false pretences.
Trial judge Justice Ajet-Nassam in his ruling said the state failed to convince him that Woyome acquired the money fraudulently. He also questioned why the then attorney general and her deputy, Mrs. Betty Mould Iddrissu and Barton Odro respectively, were not called to testify why they did not argue against Woyome’s claim. Judge Ajet-Nassam therefore acquitted and discharged Mr. Woyome on the charges adding the accused received the money without any coersion.
Most Ghanaians, including former President Jerry John Rawlings have been shocked by the judgment charging the attorney general for shoddy prosecutorial job. Mr. Rawlings bemoaned the spate of corruption in the party he founded saying that former Attorney General Betty Mould Iddrissu should equally have been charged.
Mr. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, the man who first made public the case in 2011, believes, it was an intentional act by the attorney general’s department to wrongly charge Mr. Woyome.
He was not a public officer nor did he control any public funds to cause financial loss. Those in the attorney general’s department who should have protected public funds reneged on their responsibilities by choosing to ignore calling those who made the payment possible.
Attorney General Marrietta Oppong Appiah indicated that she would study the ruling and file an appeal.

 

Posted by on Mar 21 2015. Filed under Community News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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