{"id":380224,"date":"2017-12-05T11:44:40","date_gmt":"2017-12-05T11:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=380224"},"modified":"2017-12-05T11:45:09","modified_gmt":"2017-12-05T11:45:09","slug":"martin-amidu-writes-woyomes-suspected-crimes-missing-link","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/12\/martin-amidu-writes-woyomes-suspected-crimes-missing-link\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Amidu writes: Woyome’s suspected crimes and the missing link"},"content":{"rendered":"
Mr. Malik Kweku Baako, the Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide Newspaper, expressed confidence that Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome\u2019s latest foray to the Africa Court and the consequential orders from that court to stay the execution of the judgment and orders I obtained against him at the Supreme Court to refund the over GHS51million unconstitutionally paid to him by the previous Government was just a transient irritation \u2013 he will vomit the money.<\/p>\n
I have written about the corrupt stratagem being adopted to substitute the Republic of Ghana for me as the plaintiff in the substantive case. I have raised the red flags for President Akufo Addo and his team to be alert to the dangers ahead and the ultimate plans of Woyome and his mentors waiting in the wings for a possible positive outcome at the Africa Court.<\/p>\n
Mr. Kweku Baako is reported to have raised the very important issue of \u201cthe missing link\u2026the people involved in the payment of the GHS51.2 million judgment debt.\u201d He is reported on Ghana Web of 29th<\/sup> November 2017 to have queried: \u201cThose political functionaries, ministers, deputy ministers and party top shots who facilitated that payment, we haven\u2019t yet looked at them. A thorough investigation into the conduct of these people should be initiated\u2026how did they sit for one person to swindle them and the entire nation.\u201d Mr. Baako is further reported to have expressed his incomprehension of how public officials allowed this to slip by and why until now nothing has been done to them.<\/p>\n The whole country will recollect that when Woyome was being tried before the sham Court of the irredeemably corrupt High Court Justice John Ajet-Nasam, I continued to insist that it will be difficult to secure a conviction of Woyome in the case without prosecuting those who aided and facilitated the commission of the offence with which he was charged. The New Patriotic Party both in and outside parliament shared the same sentiments as did Mr. Kweku Baako throughout the trial.<\/p>\n Nothing epitomizes corruption in the annals of the history of this country better than the circumstances and context of the Woyome case, and its trial by an irredeemably corrupt High Court Justice. Accordingly, one understood the promise by President Nana Akufo Addo and his party to fight corruption to include dealing with the residual matters relating to what Mr. Kweku Baako now calls \u201cthe missing link.\u201d<\/p>\n No reasonable person expects President Nana Akufo Addo to personally investigate and deal with suspects in fulfillment of his promises of fighting corruption and dealing with past corruption which substantially contributed to earning him the Presidency. This is a function of his appointees to whom he has assigned ministerial responsibility for security and intelligence, law and order, and particularly justice.<\/p>\n The change of Government brought about by the electorate who demonstrated their hatred for corruption in the body politic offered the chances for the new Government to reopen the case and find the real facts, which the previous Government suppressed because it was itself complicit in the commission of the suspected crimes.\u00a0 Eleven months down the line nothing has been done or is being done to the knowledge of the public to redeem the President\u2019s promise on this outstanding matter.<\/p>\n One of the problems faced by some of the appointees of the present Government is the ability to go beyond the biased advice being proffered to them by the senior public officers they inherited from the previous Government. A conscientious and knowledgeable Minister should be able within the first three months in office to know how many of his officers were recently promoted by the outgoing Government and their role in cover ups in the Ministry. The inability of any Minister to understand the composition and promotional history of his senior public servants upon whom he depends for advice within the first three to six months means that he may be working with moles planted before the demise of the previous Government.<\/p>\n A simple analysis of the staff list in any Ministry including transfers within a period will easily give any Minister a bird\u2019s eye view of how very junior staff wormed their way into acting senior positions above their very senior and competent colleagues and were later promoted in the election year, just in case the ballot was lost. This may provide an opening into the dependability and professionalism of some senior public servants in calling the Government\u2019s attention to residual issues needing urgent redress.<\/p>\n