$5m Woyome Scandal Hits Mills Wife

The Director of Operations of Friends of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings (FONKAR), Ernest Owusu-Bempah, has accused the First Lady, Mrs. Ernestina Naadu Mills, of receiving $5 million from the controversial Woyome money.

Host of the Oman FM Boiling Point programme, Obotantim Kwabena Kwakye, startled by the damning accusation when Owusu-Bempah began his submission on last Thursday’s edition of the programme, failed in his attempt to stop his guest from continuing.

He only managed to interrupt him briefly, but when his guest re-started, he spilled the beans beyond management.

Daily guide could not verify the allegation, but Owusu-Bempah insisted that the First Lady benefited from the Woyome GH¢51.2 million judgement debt payments.

The allegation was so weighty that panelists on the show took cover. With the bombshell safely dropped during last Thursday’s version of the biweekly programme, KK, as the host is called, quickly dissociated his station from the claims.

The interest of listeners and that of other panelists on the programme having been aroused, Owusu-Bempah repeated his horrifying submission, as his colleague panelists listened in awe.

He literally seized the floor, leaving his colleagues on the programme visibly savouring what could pass for a fresh bombshell to the ongoing Alfred Agbesi Woyome scandal.

By the time he had finished making the allegation, his host and other discussants on the programme were left stupefied by the weight off what they heard: “I, Ernest Owusu-Bempah do hereby stated that Mrs. Naadu Mills collected $5 million from the Woyome judgment debt, an amount which he got with no contract arrangement with the government of Ghana,” he said in flowery Twi.

It was his umpteenth attack on the Mills administration, but perhaps one of the most abrasive, exerting pressure on the First Lady or even the Presidency, to parry it one way or the other through a convincing statement. So far this had not come. The First couple was on an official visit to the United States.

After dropping the bombshell, Mr. Owusu-Bempah took leave of the Madina Junction studios of the radio station well after 10:00pm but as he did, a security challenge awaited him not too far away from the place.

The host of the programme said it all when he cut in with the following announcement: “Two vehicles had sandwiched Owusu-Bempah’s car in a manner which raised eyebrows. If Owusu-Bempah feels unsafe let him return to the studios.”

In the end, nothing untoward happened and he reached home safely. He later said he outwitted some persons who trailed him.

Owusu-Bempah, a strong supporter of the Rawlingses, had fired several allegations against top NDC personalities, but none of them had so far responded.

Late last year, he accused a top NDC man of having a father who was arrested for stealing cassava from a farm. The man, a palm wine tapper, was called Akiti Boge.

Still bitter about the ordeal the Rawlingses suffered during the Sunyani Congress of the NDC, he was always charging at those who orchestrated it, pointing out that the former First Couple were minding their own business and nowhere near joining the NDC campaign team.

Owusu-Bempah insisted that President Mills said he did not need the support of former President Rawlings because he was a winnable candidate, a claim the president’s men had since denied.

The FONKAR boy recently engaged Koku Anyidohu in a war of obscene words after the Presidential spokesperson hurled the first stone when he said the President’s critics had rotten teeth, after the kenkey buying visit to come markets at Nima and Mamobi.

Owusu-Bempah responded swiftly, using words and expressions that were unprintable.

His words, “We in FONKAR will determine who becomes the next President”, continued to resonate across the political turf even as new posters and campaign materials of Konadu were all over town and some at Tema Port for clearing.

Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings was still keeping her cards to her chest as she told Bola Ray of Joy FM on Thursday night that it was too premature to rule her out of the 2012 presidential race.

KK’s efforts and his eventual submission to the charged Owusu-Bempah made interesting listening as it kept listeners glued to the programme.

The allegation was preceded by Owusu-Bempah’s accusation of the mills government as representing corruption of the highest order.

The drama-studded submission started thus: “I am saying it that the First Lady Mrs. Naadu Mills collected %5 million,” at which point KK cut in “stop it…you do not have evidence to back the allegation. This station dissociates itself from it”.

Owusu-Bempah however retorted: “I am responsible for what I am going to say. I won’t say what is not true. I know what I am saying.”