Alfred Woyome has been acquitted and discharged on the two counts: causing financial loss to the state and defrauding by false pretense.
The judge, Justice Ajet-Nasam said the state did a poor job on the case by failing to call key witnesses.
Woyome was paid the money for what he described as financial engineering to the state ahead of the 2008 African Cup of Nations which was hosted by Ghana.
The prosecution’s case was that Woyome put in false claims by stating he was entitled to the amount because the government had abrogated a contract for the construction of stadia for the tournament, when according to the prosecution, there was no such contract.
But the Judge said Woyome did not dupe the state.
Citi News’ Richard Mensah who was in court reported that the Judge indicted the prosecution for a very poor job done.
According to him, the Judge at a point in time questioned why the prosecution could not call former State Ministers who were very much involved in the case to come and testify in court.
“He told the prosecution that they did a very shoddy job especially with the kind of people they brought as prosecution witnesses…”
Richard Mensah further narrated that, “He [Judge] even said that criticisms by the prosecution to paint Betty Mould Iddrisu as the sole person responsible and to the effect that Betty was new at the Ministry and therefore he was not privy to facts was very wrong and misplaced because very evidence were to show that people of high caliber were involved.”
The likes of Ebo Barton Oduro, Paul Aasumaning, some of the Chief Directors of the Ministry of Justice were mentioned by the Judge who said they should have been made to testify in the case.
Civil Case
The Supreme Court, on July 29, 2014, ordered Woyome to refund GH¢51.2 million to the state on the grounds that he got the money out of unconstitutional and invalid contracts between the state and Waterville Holdings Limited in 2006 for the construction of stadia for CAN 2008.
It held, in a unanimous decision, that the contracts upon which Woyome made and received the claim were in contravention of Article 181 (5) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, which requires such contracts to be laid before and approved by Parliament.
The 11-member court, was ruling on a review application filed by a former Attorney- General and Minister of Justice, Mr Martin Amidu.
Other members of the panel were Justices Julius Ansah, Sophia Adinyira, Rose Owusu, Jones Dotse, Anin Yeboah, Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, N. S. Gbadegbe, Vida Akoto Bamfo, A. A. Bennin and J.B. Akamba.
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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana