The star witness in the GYEEDA trial, Adongo Atule Jacob, has described as “a delivery of gross injustice” the conviction of former National Youth Employment Programme Coordinator Abuga Pele and the CEO of Goodwill International Group (GIG), Phillip Assibit.
The two were on Friday, February 23 sentenced to a combined jail-term of 18 years on several counts including willfully causing financial loss to the state.
Addressing a press conference in Accra Wednesday, Adongo Atule Jacob accused the trial judge, Justice Afua Asare-Botwe, of “failing to evaluate the compelling evidence presented by the defense team”.
He alleged that the ruling was based on fabrications of facts and that the Accra High Court used a “dishonestly fraudulent judicial process to convict them”.
“For the learned judge to prefer an opinion to the effect that no work was done by GIG is not only misleading but a total fabrication of the facts that were presented before her by various wittiness,” he alleged.
He further argued, “The fact that the judge concluded that GIG did not produce any exit plan for the NYEP cannot be the case per the evidence before her. Indeed, GIG developed an exit plan that was lunched at Alisa Hotel and could not be refuted by the prosecution team”.
He wondered why some individuals who played various roles in the execution of the transactions for which Abuga Pele and Phillip Assibit have been convicted were not brought to court.
“What beats my imagination is why the prosecution team didn’t bring certain persons who played crucial roles in the approval of the expenditure that was disbursed by the NYEP over a period of three years for work done by the GIG for the NYEP”.
He added that the judge should have hauled the Internal Auditor of the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Chief Director of the Ministry before the court to explain various roles they played in the transaction.
It is the position of Adongo Atule that “the prosecution had completely moved out of the charges and the ruling was just a delivery of gross injustice to punish innocent people even after proceedings proofed them innocent”.
He cautioned politicians to get all the facts of the case and compare same with the proceedings and ruling before appearing in the media to run any commentary on the issue.
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