General News of Friday, 11 May 2012

Source: The Alfred Woyome Communication Team

RE: Woyome’s Prosecution: “Zero Tolerance” To Further Delays

Our attention has been drawn to a Press Release issued by the Alliance for Accountable Governance [AFAG]. Indeed, the said Statement is pregnant with several prejudicial statements which Mr. Alfred Woyome has referred to his Solicitors who will take the actions necessary at the appropriate time and at the appropriate forum.
That having been said, we deem it necessary and pertinent to address a few points that were carried in the said Press Release by AFAG and are not before the courts of our land.
In the release, AFAG made reference to “businessman and self-confessed NDC financier, Alfred Agbesi Woyome”: Mr. Woyome does not deny being a staunch member of the National Democratic Congress [NDC] but we categorically state that, yes, Mr. Woyome has made financial contributions to the NDC but never has Mr. Alfred Woyome publicly confessed being an NDC financier.
The AFAG makes reference to some publication that purported that concealment of names was serving as a bargaining chip; what publication was this and was that publication based on any fact? Mr. Woyome emphatically states that he has never gotten into any form of bargaining with the State or ruling NDC Government for any reason. The Judgment debt paid to Alfred Agbesi Woyome was legitimately obtained through a court of COMPETENT JURISDICTION.
This is a fact that has been glossed over [either deliberately or inadvertently] by several persons and groups who have made some comments on this matter. We wish to emphatically reiterate that Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome is not engaged in any form of cover-up or bargain with the ruling NDC Government in relation to this matter.
He is fully committed to the ongoing legal process and is eager to have his day in court so that he can tell his story to the courts and, by extension, to the good people of Ghana. Indeed, Mr. Woyome is not even interested in having any form of discussion with the State outside of the court. So convinced is he of his innocence that he just can’t wait for the State to commence its prosecution of the case.
Another portion of the AFAG Statement makes reference to a statement attributed to former Attorney-General Martin B. K. Amidu, as follows: “Time is of essence now otherwise the Republic would be perceived as unnecessarily delaying the case”.
We have put this statement in its proper perspective before but we would want to do so over here again – How can Mr. Amidu be saying “time is of essence” when he supervised the AG’s office for a little over Ten (10) months and, on two previous occasions, he oversaw the State’s withdrawal of the case against Alfred Woyome.
Indeed, the Court struck out the case for want of prosecution; it was Alfred Woyome who re-listed it because of his counter-claim.
Martin Amidu had ten (10) long months to prosecute this case, failed to do so and later turns round to say “time is of the essence”? How absurd and apparently hypocritical!
When AFAG talks about the statement made by President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania to the effect that “it is not enough for a minister to take responsibility alone, but the new approach is that, even those who caused the mishap will be taken to task as well”;
So, in this case, who was responsible for the incurring of this debt by the State? Does it not stand to reason, if we are to follow the line of reasoning of AFAG that the persons [several of them in the erstwhile NPP regime] whose acts of omission and commission led to the incurring of this Judgment debt be held responsible? Why should Mr. Alfred Woyome be held responsible for these acts? Just because he is the beneficiary of a court-sanctioned payment? The reasoning of the AFAG simply defies logic!
As we have surmised and publicly expressed before, we believe that elements of the ruling NDC Government are in bed with elements from the opposition NPP and view the hanging of Mr. Alfred Woyome as a necessary occurrence to enable them successfully carry through their conspiratorial plot to protect certain personalities in the erstwhile NPP regime.
By the time the trial of Alfred Woyome is over, we are certain that Ghanaians will be dumbfounded at the proven innocence of Alfred Agbesi Woyome. We remain solidly confident that Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome is innocent of the charges brought against him and believe that time will tell this amazing story.

Issued By The Alfred Woyome Communication Team