Former Attorney-General reveals ‘connivance’ of State lawyers in GH¢51m Woyome saga
Former Attorney-General, Mr Martin Amidu, has revealed that during his time in office he received a memo from some senior State lawyers asking him to withdraw the court case in which GH¢51 million was paid to businessman Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome as judgment debt.
Mr. Amidu was sacked from office after he went public on the matter inferring that some ministers of state were involved in corruption.
He said the Solicitor-General, the Senior State Attorney and the Chief State Attorney authorized him to withdraw the pending case against Woyome, but he refused.
“What the public does not know is that in November 2011 the Solicitor-General, Mrs. Amma Gaisie, supported two memoranda written by the Senior State Attorney, Cecil Adadevoh, and the Chief State Attorney, Mr. Samuel Nerquaye-Tetteh, to me as Attorney-General to authorize the withdrawal of the pending case by the Republic in the Commercial High Court against Alfred Agbesi Woyome to enable the Republic pay a further over GH¢9 million to Alfred Agbesi Woyome in final settlement of interests in the case,” Amidu said in a public statement dated February 29, 2012.
But the former Attorney-General who left office in January 2012 refused and “ordered them to continue with the case in court.”
But despite the refusal to heed to the lawyers’ memo, Mr Amidu said “The Solicitor-General and the Chief State Attorney, Mr. Nerquaye-Tetteh, continued to pursue me by memo to settle the interest as late as December 2011 but I refused.”
Mr Amidu stated that on January 16, 2012, he led the “most senior lawyers of the Civil Division of the Attorney-General’s Office to the High Court (Commercial Division) Accra to seek an adjournment to enable me argue an application for leave to amend by substituting an amended Writ and Statement of Claim for the Attorney-General’s amended Statement of Claim.”
The claim is that Mr Woyome had no contract with the State and that the judgment debt paid to him shouldn’t have been authorized.
“We were to apply to join two foreign registered companies who were the principals of Alfred Agbesi Woyome who themselves had no subsisting and enforceable contract with the Government of Ghana under the Constitution and laws of Ghana. Time is of the essence now otherwise the Republic would be perceived as unnecessarily delaying the case.”
Mr Amidu says he is very disappointed by the level of legal representation of the Republic in Court over the matter.
By Ekow Quandzie