Executive Director of Anti graft agency the Ghana integrity initiative Vitus Azeem says the state prosecution should be charged for causing financial loss to the state.
[contextly_sidebar id=”xBAEWSbjc2g2RCo0mhlRNpqbyn8f5mpC”]“If the state hires people and pays them to defend the state and unfortunately they are not able to defend the state maybe causing financial loss to the state charge should go to the state officials and not Woyome.”
He was commenting on the acquittal of Mr. Woyome of all the charges against him in the 51 million cedis judgment debt scandal.
Mr. Woyome was standing trial for defrauding the state by false pretence and causing financial loss to the state.
The presiding judge Justice Ajet-Nasam in his ruling said the state did not prove beyond reasonable doubt that Mr. Woyome was indeed guilty of the charges against him.
Executive Director of the GII Vitus Azeem speaking to Citi news said the judgement is not surprising because the state from the beginning was disinterested in the case.
“From the very beginning a lot of us felt the state was not interested in the case. Especially when some members of the attorney general’s department were initially accused of some of these judgment debt cases,” he said.
When Mr. Woyome’s issue broke in 2012, the then Attorney General Betty Mould Iddrisu and her Deputy Ebo Barto Oduro were all accused of allegedly conniving to pay the 51 million cedis to him.
Mr. Azeem said it is sad that people paid to defend the state choose to do a shoddy job which eventually costs the case.
“When we hire people and pay them to defend the state it is sad when they are found to have not taken the matter seriously.”
He said the attitude of the state prosecutors in the case may not just be the lack of interest in the case or inefficiencies at the department but rather “from an anti corruption perspective some individuals or some groups of people stood to gain by this judgment.”
By: Betty Kankam-Boadu/citifmonline.com/Ghana