Alfred Agbesi Woyome
Cynthia Lamptey, Acting Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), yesterday informed an Accra Fast Track High Court (Financial Division) trying Alfred Agbesi Woyome, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) financier, for fraudulently receiving GH¢51.28 million in judgment debt, that they could not get the witness they were supposed to bring to court.
Ms Lamptey told the court, presided over by Justice John Najet-Asam, that they could not produce the witness “due to circumstances beyond our control” and added that “we are asking that the court should grant us an adjournment for at least two weeks.”
The trial judge consequently had the matter adjourned to February 11, 2013 for the state to produce its witnesses.
This is the second time the state has prayed for an adjournment to enable it to produce a witness.
However, this latest twist did not go down well with the suspect, Alfred Woyome, who accused the state of deliberately frustrating his businesses.
Woyome indicated that the state was employing tactics to strangulate his businesses.
An angry Woyome told Joy FM after court yesterday: “You have disgraced us, you’ve done all that you can do against my rights; for more than one year, I don’t work, my companies’ accounts have been frozen…..and you continue to come over here and say that you are looking for witnesses? Do you bring people to court before you start looking for witnesses? You can’t just bring people to court and be searching for witnesses.”
The NDC financier, who supported the party generously in its re-election bid, had stated in a press release/new year message captioned ‘a note of appreciation’ that “I believe that, in the soonest possible time, I shall be vindicated”.
“In as much as we cannot determine the pace at which the ongoing proceedings in court shall proceed, the last couple of sittings have begun to reveal the truth about this whole affair,” he said.
What is however not certain is what has given Mr. Woyome this new sense of optimism, believing he can win the case.
Though he had personally admitted not having a binding contract with government, he went ahead to demand a default judgment for a supposed breach of a non-existing contract, leading to him walking away with GH¢51.2million.
Ms Lamptey was in court with Matthew Amponsah, a chief state attorney and other state attorneys while Woyome was there with his wife, counsel Osafo Boabeng and some family members as well as some supporters of the NDC.
Mr Boabeng, at the last hearing, stated that the trial of his client could not go on without a substantive Attorney-General (A-G).
Counsel told the court at the last hearing that under Article 88 of the constitution, the trial could not go on without a substantive A-G.
It would be recalled that the former Minister of Justice and A-G, Dr Ben Kumbour, has been made the majority leader in Parliament and the President is yet to appoint someone to replace him.
The trial judge told Mr. Boabeng to file the issue for the court to hear him formally.
Earlier, Mr Amponsah had told the court that they could not get their witness to come to court and prayed for an adjournment.
An official of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP), Yvonne Quansah, last month testified at the trial and said that no money came from the Bank of Austria from which Woyome was seeking funds for the construction and rehabilitation of the stadiums for the Confederation of the African Cup (CAN) 2008.
The witness told the court that she and some other officials at the Ministry of Finance were assigned to manage the debt of Ghana.
She said she got to know the accused person in 2005 through a project facility, adding that she was part of a committee tasked to analyse financial projects for the construction and rehabilitation of stadiums for CAN 2008.
The witness said at the end of their sitting, they prepared a report for the ministry and noted that they analysed two companies in the report and chose Vamed Engineering.
Furthermore, she stated that the Bank of Austria was to be the financier of Vamed, which was represented by Woyome.
According to her, the two companies which she analysed along with her team were Vamed and Epipherm, presented proposals to the Ministry of Finance through the Ministry of Sports and Education.
Woyome has pleaded not guilty to causing financial loss to the state and defrauding by false pretences.
By Fidelia Achama