Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul Mali Kwaku Baako Jnr, wants Alfred Woyome’s lawyers to advise the embattled businessman against further public statements on the GH¢51 million judgement debt fraudulently paid to him.
Kwaku Baako suggests that Mr Woyome could incriminate himself if his new-found love for press conferences aimed at presenting his side of the story in the long-drawn-out judgement debt scandal continues.
“I don’t know if his lawyers have been listening to him, but if I were them I would have advised him to shut up. It is better so that everybody can focus on what is happening now,” Kwaku Baako said on Joy FM/Multi TV news analysis programme, Newsfile, Saturday.
Following the Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday, November 16, 2016, that former Attorney General, Martin Amidu, should cross-examine Mr Woyome on how he spend the GH¢51.2 million, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) financier has accused the Justices of the apex court of bias.
Mr Amidu, who initiated the legal process against the judgement debt, told the Supreme Court his request was important to plans to retrieve the millions of cedis paid to Mr Woyome by the government in 2010 for no work done.
The Supreme Court upheld Mr Amidu’s request, citing poor commitment by the government to retrieve the money.
However, since the Supreme Court ruling, Mr Woyome has held two press conferences, alleging a deliberate effort by some unnamed person, through Mr Amidu, to make his life difficult, and vowing to fight efforts by the state to retrieve the money.
“I feel that the Supreme Court is persecuting me,” Mr Woyome told the press, criticising the Court’s decision to allow Mr Amidu to cross-examine him.
However, speaking on Newsfile, Kwaku Baako said Mr Woyome could provoke people to revisit the issues surrounding the scandal.
“I am resisting the temptation to go back to history in terms of dealing with this matter because I think we’ve moved quite a lot forward, but if becomes difficult not to do that when you hear Mr Woyome talk.
Mr. Woyome received GH¢51 million after he claimed that he helped Ghana to raise funds to construct stadia for purposes of hosting the CAN 2008 Nations Cup.
But in 2010, an Auditor General’s report revealed that the amount was paid illegally and subsequently a Supreme Court in 2014 ordered Mr. Woyome to pay back the money.
Although the Attorney General has been working to retrieve the money, only GH¢4 million have been retrieved.
Mr. Amidu returned to court to seek an order to examine Woyome, after the Attorney General backtracked from pursuing the case despite serving an earlier notice to orally examine him.
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