Mills Invokes ‘Father For All’

Until last Friday, the true spirit behind President John Evans Atta Mills’ ‘father for all’ policy was lost on many a Ghanaian. But by an explicit invocation, the ‘father for all’ has engulfed politicians from both sides of the political divide of Ghana’s two main political parties, the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), and two civil servants.

President Mills, by a presidential fiat, has ordered the arrest of 6 persons, Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome a businessman and member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Yaw Osafo-Mafo and Mr O. B. Amoah, former Minister and Deputy Minister of Education, Youth & Sports respectively, under the Kufuor-led N NPP government, Mr. Paul Asimenu, Director of Legal Affairs at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and Mr. Samuel Nerquaye-Tetteh, Chief State Attoney and his wife.

Mr Woyome, a staunch supporter of President Mills, was arrested Hollywood style by security personnel Friday afternoon in traffic in Accra and whisked to the police headquarters where he has since been on detention pending an appearance in court this morning.

Mr & Mrs Nerquaye-Tetteh were also picked up Saturday at the Kotoka International Airport whilst attempting to run away from the country, The Catalyst has learnt. They will be in court today, barring any unforeseen hitch, together with Mr Alfred Woyome to begin answering criminal charges. Osafo-Mafo, O. B. Amaoh and Paul Asimeh on the other hand have been on the run since Friday.

At Mr Osafo-Mafo’s Achimota residence, security officers met no one at home, even his dogs were absent from home when security personnel stormed there to arrest him.

O. B. Amoah’s story is not different from that of his former boss. The Catalyst has learnt that BNI personnel have been on his trail all the way to his home village where he is suspected to be hiding.

A rigorous manhunt has been invoked against the 3 wanted persons. All the exit points of the country have been put on red alert whilst a thorough search has been mounted within the country for them.

As at the time this paper went to bed yesterday, information The Catalyst gathered was that personnel of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) were on their trail and indications are that they would sooner than later be picked up for interrogation regarding their various roles in the CAN 2008 Waterville stadia contract abrogation which has caused the country some 774 billion cedis (35 million Euros) settlement to Waterville and payment of some $52million judgement debt to Mr Woyome.

The President’s orders for the arrest of the 6 persons stems from their indictment by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) for their alleged shady roles in the payment of judgement debt to Alfred Agbesi Woyome, which has generated much controversy and also, in the causation of the debt in the first place.

Mr Osafo-Mafo was the one who, sensing danger regarding the unlawful decision by President Kufuor and his cabinet to abrogate the duly won contract by Waterville, warned the then government against abrogating the contract and circumventing the Procurement Act. He however went ahead to write a letter to terminate the contract, which was giving to the Chinghai Group, a company that was not part of the tender process.

EOCO’s report states: “The evidence shows that when the decision was to be taken by the Cabinet to abrogate the tender process, Hon. Osafo-Mafo, the then Minister of Education and Sports, in his memorandum to Cabinet dated July 27, 2005 warned that Cabinet of the fact that the Shanghai Construction Group did not qualify for the award because the Group had not taken part in the tender, had not been evaluated, had not provided any financial proposals and that the stage of the tender process had gotten to, it would be a breach of the Public Procurement Act to abrogate the Process.”

The report also indicated that Mr. O.B. Amoah who was a deputy Minister of Sports “gave the green light for Waterville to proceed to site and start work at a time the contract had not been approved by Parliament.”

Enter The Chief State Attoney, Mr. Samuel Nerquaye-Tetteh. According to the report, “it has been detected from his (Woyome) bank account that he made a payment of an amount of GHS 400, 000 to Mrs Gifty Nerquaye-Tetteh, the wife of Mr. Samuel Nerquaye-Tetteh on June 16, 2011.”

The report however is silent on the details about the payment as it has not specified as to whether it was a bribe paid by Mr Woyome to the chief state attorney through his wife, as has been claimed by some individuals and media houses, or that the money changed hands as a result of a purely business transaction between Mr Woyome and Mrs Nerquaye-Tetteh.

The report indicts Mr. Nerquaye-Tetteh for advising then Attorney General, Betty Mould-Iddrisu, that the government did not have a basis to put in a defense against the suit by Mr. Woyome. The report described the advice as flawed. “There were however enough grounds to defend the action but this was not done. In the files at the AG’s department could be found a lot of evidence which indicated clearly that at the least, Mr. Woyome could not establish his case,” EOCO pointed out.

Mr. Paul Asimenu on the other hand, the report suggests, “wrote the opinion which eventually led to the decision that Mr. Woyome was entitled to his claim.” The report said that during the investigations, Mr Asimenu “admitted that the figures he quoted in his advice as the basis of the evaluation by the finance committee of the CTRB [Central Tender Review Board] on which he served was wrong and that he misled the Hon. AG. He also admitted that he went further to give personal advice to the AG on the correctness of the claim since it was international best practice.”

Intelligence information picked by The Catalyst also indicates more officials of the Mills government have their necks on the chopping board following some signals picked by the President regarding their conduct in the Woyome affair. Deputy chief of Staff, Mr Alex Segbefia and Finance Minister and Mr Kwabena Duffuor, The Catalyst sources say, are on their way out of the Mills government. Whilst Mr Segbefia is expected to resign today, after which a series of actions will follow, Mr Duffuor may be sacked by reason of an alleged conflict of interest.