Accra, Jan 07, GNA - The Volta Regional Youth for Action of the National Democratic Congress is calling on Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Deputy Minister for Information, to apologise for failing to defend the stance of the president in the Woyome saga.

The group said the Deputy Minister’s refusal to use the government information machinery to defend the President stance, raised suspicion that Mr Ablakwa was on the side, the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Addressing a press conference in Accra on Thursday, Mr Agbe Mawunyo, the conveyer of the group, said the open protest against calls by the president to use a lawful state organ, the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to investigate the actions of Woyome has led the state to lose huge sums of money.

In September, 2010, His Lordship I.O Tanko Amadu of the Commercial Court division of the High Court ruled in favor of Mr Alfred Agbesi Wayome in which he ordered the state to pay 22 Million Euros to Mr Wayome for his role in engineering finances during the preparation for the Can 2008 African Cup of Nation tournament.

Mr Mawunyo said “it is strange why intellectuals will not use appellate process of the court system to resolve their disagreements over a court verdict but resort to the use of the media attack the reputation of lawful citizens who have decided to use lawful procedure to resolve their grievances.”

Mr Kwadjo Mpianim former chief of staff and Mr Joe Ghartey former Attorney General respectively under the NPP Kuffour led government are the guiltiest in this regard, he added.

He said the NPP must render an unqualified apology to Mr Wayome for being one of the many candidates of victimization during the NPP rule for which he sought and was granted justice by the court, “now the man who is being openly lambasted by the NPP same people who wronged him.”

The conveyer also called on the NPP to immediately suspend Nana Addo Dankwa Akkufu Addo as the presidential candidate for being part of the cabinet that illegally terminated a lawful contract of Mr Wayome Company and partners which the state had been called upon by the court to pay huge sum of money as judgment debt.

Mr Mawunyo said , “we as Voltarians will continue to pay glowing tribute to Mr Wayome for being a successful businessman and a politician who had made our region proud at the local and international scene.”

“It is our hope that Mr Wayome will continue to take care of the poor and help the needy in the region, and also, we are not deterred by the deliberate ploy by the NPP to make a purely legal issue political.”