Chief State Attorney arrested

Accra, Feb. 4, GNA - Chief State Attorney, Mr Samuel Nerquaye-Tetteh, has been arrested as the police continue investigations into the payment of GH?51.2 million judgement debt to businessman Alfred Woyome.

Reliable sources said Mr Nerquaye-Tetteh was arrested on Saturday and is at the Police Headquarters.

Mr Woyome was arrested on Friday, barely 24 hours after the Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO) presented its report on the payment of the controversial judgement debt, which stated that the businessman did not have a contract with the government and therefore did not deserve to be paid the whopping amount.

Mr Woyome had said he had a contract with the government for the rehabilitation of sports stadiums in Accra and Kumasi that was abrogated by the Kufuor Administration.

The EOCO report also indicted Mr Nerquaye-Tetteh, Mr Paul Asimenu, Director at the Legal Department of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP), former Attorney-General Betty Mould-Iddrisu and two officials of the Kufuor Administration, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Education, Science and Sports at the time and Mr Osei Bonsu Amoah, Deputy Minister of Education, Youth and Sports at the time.

The report said Mr Nerquaye-Tetteh was the Chief State Attorney directly in charge of the Woyome case.

“He admits that he drafted all the letters which, Mrs Mould-Iddrisu sent to the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning concerning the transactions leading to the payments to Mr Woyome, with the exception of the letter dated December 9, 2010.”

Mr Nerquaye-Tetteh said he was involved in the negotiations, which led to the first settlement of more than GH?41 million.

He said when MOFEP refused to pay the money and Mr Woyome went to court, he found it unconscionable to defend the action.

He said he appeared in court and requested MOFEP to provide evidence which they did not have during the first negotiations in which the settlement was reached.

Mr Nerquaye-Tetteh said MOFEP did not get back to him.

The report said as a result, he concluded that the Government did not have a defence and therefore did not file one.

“It is worthy of note that the default judgment procured by Mr Woyome out of this singular delinquent action by Mr Nerquaye-Tetteh led to the seeming legitimisation of Mr Woyome’s claim,” the report said.

“Available evidence so far has confirmed that an amount of GH?400, 000,000.00 was paid to the wife of Mr Nerquaye-Tetteh on June 16, 2011.”

The EOCO report said according to Mr Nerquaye-Tetteh, the Chief State Attorney in-charge of the case for the AG’s Department, the Government did not have a defence. There were however enough grounds to defend the action but this was not done.