Lawyer for journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni has said the police erred in inviting his client to assist investigate allegations of forgery at E-Volution, the company at the centre of the ¢1 million World Cup kickback scandal.
[contextly_sidebar id=”4cJNSbg9BwuDy4QsGvUfTfKHpUeVeeP1″]According to the Lawyer, Sampson Lardi Ayenini, the police should rather pursue officials at E-volution and not his client.
Manasseh Azure, Joy FM journalist, alleged that Former Minister of Youth and Sports, Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, was involved in a kickback scandal from E-Volution International.
Although the Minister has denied the allegations, the Chief Executive of E-volution, Fred Darko, who was also the project coordinator for the 2014 World Cup, claims the signatures on payment vouchers to three separate public officials were forged and has since lodged a complaint with the Ministries police.
The police has invited the journalist to assist them investigate the matter, but his lawyer insists that the action by the police show they are not interested in pursuing the substantive case.
“The complaint as far as I have been told and I believe it is true is that somebody within his entity must have forged that document so those are the people the police ought to pursue,” he said.
He insisted that his client is not an accused person in the matter hence must not be invited by the police.
He further explained that the accused persons are “the identifiable individuals within that identifiable office. Have they been picked up? Have they been questioned? Have they declined or refused to produce the vouchers that Manasseh has? Have they declined or refused to submit the bank statements and give further evidence to assist the police in the process? When the police are unable to get these from these people, that is where I find that it might be reasonable to expect that the journalist will furnish them with the secondhand photocopy that he is having”
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By: Godwin Allotey Akweiteh/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin