Woyome: Political executives were dealing with me

The New Crusading GUIDE`s Special Investigations Team (SIT) recently intercepted within the corridors of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police, several caution statements given by Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome to Police CID investigators in the wake of his first arrest and subsequent charging with the offence of conspiracy to commit fraud and defrauding by false pretences and corruption of public officer. Our Police CID sources have further intimated that Mr. Woyome has not revised or changed his previous statements to investigators in the wake of his recent discharge by a court and subsequent re-arrest and `re-charging` with the offences of defrauding by false pretences and fraudulently(?) causing financial loss to the State.

The Editor-In-Chief of The New Crusading GUIDE, Abdul-Malik Kweku Baako first disclosed excerpts of one of Mr. Woyome’s caution statements dated March 14, 2012, during last Saturday’s edition of NEWSFILE; Joy FM’s and MultiTV’s flagship news analysis programme.

In the caution statement under reference, Mr. Woyome revealed that before he went to court in April 2010, he instructed his Lawyer, Christoph Koka to write a letter to the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning with copies to highly-placed officials at the seat of Government, the Castle , Osu which he(Woyome) personally delivered. He gave the investigators a copy of the letter under reference dated April 14, 2010. He further revealed that when he filed his writ of summons issued on April 19, 2010, the then Attorney-General , Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu invited him(Woyome) and "demanded that I write to her to clarify my capacity. I did so and per my clarification to her, that clarification did not compromise my writ of summons."

He continued: "Two days thereafter, I was summoned to the Castle to meet Mr. Alex Segbefia. I met him with my counsel, Chris Koka and the capacity document was discussed. In the conversation, he indicated he was going through the documents with Valerie Sawyerr (Dr). Upon the basis of the clarification document, GoG did not contest the default judgement but chose to negotiate it from over 105,000,000 Ghana Cedis to 51,000,000 Ghana Cedis; which negotiation was conducted by the Minister of Finance and his Committee".

He said his lawyers then put the decision arrived at on paper for the Attorney-General to sign. He said after the AG had signed her portion of the Settlement Agreement, she(Betty Mould-Iddrisu) called Mr. Nerquarye-Tetteh to bear witness for her in their( Woyome and his counsel) presence. Mr. Woyome added that it was the Settlement Agreement signed by Mrs. Mould-Iddrisu which was filed in court "to form the consent judgement"; a "consent judgement" which he pointed out government had subsequently applied to set aside but failed.

Mr. Woyome strongly insisted that it was not true that the Government of Ghana(GoG) did not know about his writ which was later amended before the default judgement was obtained.

"AT THE TIME WE WENT TO COURT, AMPLE EVIDENCE EXISTED THAT THE POLITICAL EXECUTIVES WERE DEALING WITH ME AND I DID NOT CONCEAL ANY DOCUMENT OR INFORMATION FROM THEM. THEY HAD ALL THE DOCUMENTS I HAD AND COULD HAVE CAUSED A DEFENCE TO HAVE BEEN FILED BY THE STATE OR EVEN GO TO SET ASIDE THE DEFAULT JUDGEMENT IF THEY HAD ANY DEFENCE. AT THIS STAGE, THE POLITICAL EXECUTIVES WERE HANDLING THE ISSUES WITH ME AND NOT THE CIVIL/PUBLIC SERVANTS, AND IS THEREFORE NOT TRUE THAT I BRIBED/CORRUPTED A PUBLIC OFFICER TO OBTAIN A DEFAULT JUDGEMENT AS PER THE EOCO REPORT", Woyome articulated.

"The AG with her eyes wide open signed the Settlement Agreement which formed the basis of the default judgement. The AG has been in court for the past 18 months and could not prove their case against me. I deny absolutely the charges prefered against me. The Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance (Effie Ekuban Simpson) wrote a letter to us to confirm the outcome of the negotiation and copied the current Chief of Staff. I have attached to this statement and handed same over to the Police, correspondences regarding my further statement for further explanations", concluded Woyome in his statement to Police CID investigators dated March 14, 2012.

Mr. Woyome is currently facing trial at a Fast Track High Court on charges of defrauding by false pretences and causing financial loss to the State. He and three others had earlier been charged and put before court on slightly different charges but the State filed a nolle prosequi which resulted in all four of them being discharged by the court on June 5, 2012. However, Mr. Woyome was re-arrested the same day and subsequently re-charged with fresh offences including a new one of causing financial loss to the State.

The trial which has since been adjourned to June 22, 2012, has witnessed Mr. Woyome`s Defence Team producing official letters and correspondence between the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and the Attorney-General, in the court in a spirited effort to validate the payment of the 51m Ghana Cedis made to their client by the State between 2010 and 2011.

Keen watchers of the on-going Woyome trial have speculated that the Defence Team`s strategy is to show in the course of the trial that their client procured the GHc 51m payment not under the cloak of darkness but in the open and with the overt endorsement and collaboration of those Mr. Woyome has described as "Political Executives" who had their "eyes wide open" when they were dealing with him prior to the default judgement and the subsequent payment of the " gargantuan amount of money as judgement debt".

Please turn to page two of this edition for the publication of excerpts of Mr. Woyome`s March 14, 2012 statement to Police CID investigators and stay tuned for more exclusive exposures of the genesis and intricacies of " Woyomegate".