Pres Mills cannot absolve himself; he was aware of the debt-Jake Obetsebi Lamptey

The National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, says President John Mills cannot absolve himself from the Woyome judgment debt payment since it is under his administration, the monies were disbursed to stalwart Alfred Woyome.

He charged the Presidency with complicity in the payment of GHC51, 283,480.59 as judgment debt to the acclaimed NDC financier, Alfred Woyome.

Based on the Attorney General’s report to the Finance Ministry, he said the Presidency was given prior notice before the payment of the said amount and as a result, the governing party should be held liable.

He said President Mills cannot exonerate himself from the chain of actions that led to the payment of the judgment debt.

“His Excellency the President told us that he will not be criminal enough to pay such money to one individual. At the end of the day, we have said that this money was paid; the Auditor General has said that the monies were paid. Who paid the money? The Government of Ghana,Who is responsible for the government of Ghana? The President; therefore, whose responsibility is it that the money was paid? The President. Therefore…if it was criminal to pay Mr. Woyome this amount of money, Mr. President must look in the mirror when he is looking for who is at fault.”, he asserted.

He added that the “criminal negligence” of the Mills’ administration has intensified the brouhaha surrounding the judgment debt payment to Mr. Woyome and that the President should have issued a stern warning to the parties who facilitated the debt payment.

To him, the “court of conscience, court of law and court of opinion” will judge the President and that it is “impossible” for President Mills to deny full cognizance of the judgment debt depending on the report by the Economic and Organized Crime Office which stated that he (President Mills) on two occasions intervened to stop the payment to the business tycoon.

He said President John Mills should have debriefed the Attorney General, Betty Mould Iddrisu and Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Dufour, after the payment was made.

Jake Obetsebi was speaking on the Eyewitness News on Citi Fm.

Speaking in an interview with the hostess, Shamima Muslim, the NPP National Chairman reiterated that a public inquiry should be held into the saga and therefore called on the government to set up a Parliamentary commission of inquiry.

He said EOCO’s report to the office of the President does not give a detailed account of the judgment debt payment and therefore called for the involvement of Parliament to make the truth known.

“I think what the EOCO has done is they’ve just put out some of the matters into the public light. There’s a lot more that needs to be exposed; this matter was made before parliament by the Auditor General in his report. It is parliament that has to do the full investigation. I hope that parliament will take this report and use it for its own investigation but this must not be the end. Parliament must go ahead and do the full investigation for the people of Ghana to be able to see everything that [is] connected to the matter.”

Touching on the termination of contract by the previous government to the consortium; Waterville, Austro-Invest and bankroller Alfred Woyome, to construct five stadia towards the CAN 2008, he asked why a lawsuit was not filed against the Kufour-led government.

He further explained that former President Kufour’s administration resisted the temptation to disburse huge sums of money as judgment debt and correspondingly safeguarded the economy against any form of financial misappropriation.

“A number of claims were made against government of Ghana during the period of the NPP government, claims of termination of contracts…and a number of other companies who felt that they have been mistreated by the previous government and that with a change of government, they thought that they can very easily come in and get sums of money...”

“Under present J.A Kufour, we resisted those claims. We resisted them…we were able to save the country millions[millions] of euros because our arbitration said 1 million instead of 50 million should be paid to the claimant.”, he highlighted.

He admonished the governing party to bring to book the culpable persons in the Woyome judgment debt chronicle and the monies should be recouped from them.

Story by Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/X fm 95.1/Accra/Ghana.