{"id":467056,"date":"2018-02-23T20:56:24","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T20:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2018\/02\/23\/reduce-my-jail-term-i-have-many-children-jailed-assibit-pleads\/"},"modified":"2018-02-23T20:56:24","modified_gmt":"2018-02-23T20:56:24","slug":"reduce-my-jail-term-i-have-many-children-jailed-assibit-pleads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/02\/23\/reduce-my-jail-term-i-have-many-children-jailed-assibit-pleads\/","title":{"rendered":"Reduce my jail-term, I have many children &#8211; Jailed Assibit pleads"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"article-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/83986473.295.jpg\" alt=\"Philip Assibit GYEEDA Trial\" title=\"Philip Assibit GYEEDA Trial\" width=\"295\" height=\"161\" \/><span class=\"play-icon\">play video<\/span><span class=\"image_caption\"><span>Philip Assibit was given a 12-year jail term<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"noPrint\">\n<div id=\"537626303\" style=\"width:300;height:250;margin:0;padding:0\">\n<p>\t\t  <noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" name=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" src=\"http:\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/afr?auid=537626303&amp;cb=151125817929577\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\"><a href=\"\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/rc?cs=b2ad7fa7fd&amp;cb=151125817929577\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/1519419384_538_ai\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/iframe><\/noscript><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"clear:right\">The businessman convicted with former lawmaker Abuga Pele over the misappropriation of GHS3.3million at GYEEDA had begged the court for a lenient sentence.<\/p>\n<p>Lawyers for Philip Assibit pleaded with the trial judge not to give their client a &#8216;very long jail-term&#8217; because he is a chief who has &#8220;unnumbered children.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>They had also argued the Nsawam prison was full and would be unable to accommodate more inmates, Joy News&#8217; Joseph Ackah-Blay reported from the court Friday.<\/p>\n<p>An Accra High Court ended one of the longest-running trials against an ex-top government official who was GYEEDA National Coordinator and another who was a businessman.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Pele was accused of wilfully conniving with Goodwill International Group (GIG) CEO, Mr Assibit to dupe the state to the tune of GHS3.3million in the name of having provided a service for the Authority.<\/p>\n<p>The businessman had said he recruited and trained at least 230 youth to support a World Bank-funded programme dubbed Youth Enterprise Development Programme (YEDP).<\/p>\n<p>But no evidence was adduced to back his claim and many others he made to justify payments made to him by the Authority between 2011 and 2012.<\/p>\n<p>In a courtroom filled with sympathisers of the accused, Mr Assibit&#8217;s legal counsel, Kwaku Paintsil asked the presiding judge for not more than a six-month jail term for his client.<\/p>\n<p>He explained his client is a businessman and chief in his village who has many children to care for, adding a long jail-term will affect their upbringing.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Pele&#8217;s lawyer, Abu Juan had also pleaded for a lenient sentence, arguing the former lawmaker lost his seat because of the case. <\/p>\n<p>But Justice Afia Serwaah Asare Botwe handed the former Chiana-Paga MP a six-year jail-term, while Mr Assibit was given 12 years.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Abuga Pele&#8217;s former colleagues have expressed their disappointment at the sentence, describing it as a &#8220;very harsh one.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Former Youth and Sports Minister, Rashid Pelpuo said he was shocked to learn the former GYEEDA boss will be going to prison. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It has come with a measure of shock and a very painful experience.I have worked with him, I was a minister when he was the coordinator [but] I wish him well,&#8221; he told Joy News&#8217; Joseph Opoku-Gakpo.<\/p>\n<p>On his part, former Science Minister Mahama Ayariga said the judge could have given him a more lenient sentence.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I regret what has happened, I feel sad about it [because] when a situation like this develops it is unfortunate,&#8221; the Bawku West MP said.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a style=\"display:none\" rel=\"follow\" href=\"http:\/\/megatheme.ir\/\" title=\"\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633\">\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>play videoPhilip Assibit was given a 12-year jail term The businessman convicted with former lawmaker Abuga Pele over the misappropriation of GHS3.3million at GYEEDA had begged the court for a lenient sentence. Lawyers for Philip Assibit pleaded with the trial judge not to give their client a &#8216;very long jail-term&#8217; because he is a chief [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":405173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-467056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467056\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}