Alfred Woyome has been acquitted and discharged on all two counts: causing financial loss to the state and defrauding by false pretence. The judge, Justice Ajet-Nasam said the state did a poor job, willingly paid Woyome the GHc51 million. He added that the state failed to call key witnesses.
Woyome was paid the money for what he describes as the financial engineering, he did for the government ahead of the 2008 African Cup of Nations which was hosted by Ghana.
The prosecution’s case was that Woyome put in false claims by stating he was entitled to the amount because the government had abrogated a contract for the construction of stadia for Africa Cup of Nations tournament hosted in Ghana in 2008, when according to the prosecution, there was no such contract.
But the Judge said Woyome did not dupe the state.
Background
The Supreme Court, on July 29, 2014, ordered Woyome to refund GH¢51.2 million to the state on the grounds that he got the money out of unconstitutional and invalid contracts between the state and Waterville Holdings Limited in 2006 for the construction of stadia for CAN 2008.
It held, in a unanimous decision, that the contracts upon which Woyome made and received the claim were in contravention of Article 181 (5) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, which requires such contracts to be laid before and approved by Parliament.
The 11-member court, presided over by the Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, was ruling on a review application filed by a former Attorney- General and Minister of Justice, Mr Martin Amidu. Other members of the panel were Justices Julius Ansah, Sophia Adinyira, Rose Owusu, Jones Dotse, Anin Yeboah, Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, N. S. Gbadegbe, Vida Akoto Bamfo, A. A. Bennin and J.B. Akamba.
Source: citifmonline.com/Ghana
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