By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
March 15, 2015
E-mail: [email protected]
The acquittal of mega-fraudster Alfred Agbesi Woyome was a forgone conclusion (See "Woyome Ruling: An Appeal Is Worth Pursuing" Citifmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 3/14/15). Whatever case the Ghanaian taxpayer may have had against the putatively major underwriter of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) collapsed the moment the now-late President John Evans Atta-Mills decided to go to bat for Mr. Woyome in the wake of the latter's indictment, by publicly promising to do everything within his power to guarantee that the party's "Most Valuable Scam-Artist" was allowed to enjoy the fruits of his theft in peace and quiet.
Interestingly, following the adverse decision handed Mr. Woyome by the Wood-presided Supreme Court, I wrote an article on the subject which incensed a Mr. Dogbe, a lawyer for the accused, to email several tirades to yours truly in a rather facilely farcical attempt to either intimidate yours truly or cause him to quietly walk away, almost as if Mr. Dogbe's client had an inalienable right to rob the Ghanaian taxpayer raw and be patted on the back for doing so. Back then, as I vividly recall, Mr. Dogbe promised me that his client would emerge unscathed momentarily.
What I have been mulling since Mr. Woyome's depraved acquittal by an Accra Fast-Track High Court judge, is why a lower court would be allowed to try a case that had already been decided by legal lights on the highest court of the land. I am also incensed by the chuckleheaded decision of Attorney-General Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong to appeal the high court's verdict, when she and her department had ample time to assemble and present an airtight evidence before the trial judge, Mr. Ajet Nassam.
We are also informed that immediately prior to his acquittal of the greatest fraudster in recent national memory, the trial judge mordantly castigated the state prosecutors and the Attorney-General for flagrantly "failing to call key winesses to prosecute the case." If, indeed, the trial judge made the preceding observation with the moral gravity of a distinguished Ghanaian citizen, then, needless to say, the best course of action ought to have been for Justice Ajet Nassam to have declared a mistrial, if he was fully aware that Attorney-General Appiah-Oppong was hell-bent on botching the case. Personally, what I see here is a typical Ghanaian example of official corruption of the highest order.
It appears that the GHC 51 million was a looting scam planned and orchestrated by some of the most powerful men and women in government. And this may well be the reason behind the deliberate failure of the Attorney-General to do the right thing. We must also highlight the fact that nearly all the key witnesses to the Woyome Mega-Heist are front-pew members of the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress.
But what makes the decision of Attorney-General Appiah-Oppong chuckleheaded is the fact that a second trial will entail the wasteful spending of the hard-earned money of the already overburdened Ghanaian taxpayer. And there is absolutely no reason to believe that the Attorney-General would, this time around, go to court fully prepared and/or poised to making a convincing case for the conviction of Mr. Woyome. The Attorney-General may almost certainly do better by deciding to personally underwrite the re-trial of Mr. Woyome.
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