Alfred Agbesi Woyome
Embattled National Democratic Congress (NDC) businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome has averted the much anticipated grilling by former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Martin A. Amidu, over the controversial GH¢51.2 million judgement debt paid to him by the state.
The NDC bankroller is back in court seeking to reverse the Supreme Court ruling ordering Mr. Amidu to orally examine him as to whether or not he has the means to pay back the money.
In the latest twist to the Woyome-Amidu duel, the businessman, through his agent, David Kwadzo Ametefe, has filed a motion on notice to discharge or reverse the ruling by Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah that paves the way for Mr. Amidu aka Citizen Vigilante to question him over the cash today.
Stay Of Proceedings
Woyome, through his lawyer, is seeking to stay proceedings at the court pending the determination of the instant action.
The processes filed at the court yesterday stated, “Take notice that counsel for and on behalf of the Applicant herein will move this honorable court praying for an order for the reversal of the ruling dated 16 November, 2016 of his Lordship Anin-Yeboah, JSC sitting as a single justice in the above-mentioned case.”
It is not clear whether the parties will show up in court today for the show-down ordered by the Supreme Court or whether the Applicant will seek to abridge the time to move the motion before the scheduled date of December 6, 2016.
Last week, the court, presided over by Justice Anin-Yeboah, had ruled that the NDC financier must today appear before it and be examined on oath by Mr. Amidu – a ruling that apparently riled Woyome.
Ruling
In the view of the sole Supreme Court justice, the Applicant has the right to pursue the businessman over the “colossal” amount of money because he personally came to court to get a judgment to have Woyome pay back the money.
Justice Anin-Yeboah, granting the application by Mr. Amidu, stated that no serious efforts had been made by Attorney General Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong two years after the court had ordered her to retrieve the cash.
The court held that per the AG’s motion filed to discontinue the case, there was no evidence of any execution before the court by her (AG) currently.
He said the application succeeded because Mr. Amidu was not chasing the money as a direct beneficiary of the amount but for the state.
Manipulation
Later at a news conference in Accra on Friday, Woyome claimed the former Attorney General was being manipulated to tarnish the image of President Mahama.
He said Mr Martin Amidu had shown so much hatred for President John Mahama from the day he (Mahama) was selected as the running mate of former President Evans Atta-Mills.
“Martin is being used by unseen forces against innocent people who are doing very well, including the President of the Republic of Ghana…”
Amidu Fears
Martin Amidu, the lone crusader to retrieve Ghana’s ‘stolen’ money from Woyome, had castigated President John Mahama for openly defending Alfred Woyome after the Supreme Court had ordered he (Woyome) be allowed to reveal how he spent the money.
He said it is unfortunate that the president who has sworn the oath of office to uphold and defend the Constitution of Ghana, granted interview to the media and condemned the decision of the Supreme Court to allow Woyome to appear before it to give details of how he spent the money wrongfully paid to him,
Mr Amidu alleged that regarding the way the president had started ‘intimidating’ him (Amidu), he would not be surprised if he (president) uses his executive powers to stop the Supreme Court from going ahead to allow Woyome to give details of how he spent the state money.
“The conduct of the president convinces me as a senior and foundation member of the governing NDC that he would do everything in his powers to ensure that the examination orally on oath of lootee for whom his government looted the public purse, may not come on, on Thursday, November 24, 2016,” he said, stressing that President could subvert the course of justice so that the people of Ghana do not hear the truth about the loot of the public purse he (President) led until after the elections on December 7, 2016.
He indicated that there should be patriotic public pressure and opinion to dissuade the president from going on that tangent.
“Once the President of the Republic had unconstitutionally castigated and questioned the independence of the judiciary in granting my application, and after charging me with spreading falsehood, he then let loose his attack dogs,” Amidu noted, saying that the Deputy Minister for Justice and Attorney General, Dr Dominic Ayine, who represented the government in the Supreme Court and opposed the application, went public to mount contumacious attacks and insults on the decision of the court and on him (Martin Amidu).
“People who know me closely, including my teachers and lecturers, know that I have throughout my life stood for the principles I believe in and in my own conscience; and that it is strange that Dominic Ayine whose family has benefitted from my upright character, insults me because the president has set him against me,” he charged.
By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson &Thomas Fosu Jnr
jeffdegraft44@yahoo.com