They claim the president’s comments in the heat of the controversy only gives him out as an active participant in the payment of some ¢58 million to Woyome.
President John Mills said he ordered a report from the two ministries involved in the controversy - Finance and Justice - and had early on wanted the full report published but decided otherwise on second thought.
He said the issue is not about how much money was paid and to who. Rather, it is about who incurred the liabilities.
He said the liability could well be as a result of a willful cause of financial loss to the state and hoped the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) investigations will bring out the facts of the matter and who caused the debt in the first place.
But Minority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu told Newsmen in Accra on Thursday, the President’s comments are “bizarre and shameful.”
He said the Economic and Organised Crime Office is an inferior office with no locus to investigate a superior office - the Attorney General’s Office - a fact, he said, President Mills as a law professor and lecturer should know.
“Clearly the EOCO is an inferior office to the AG’s office and it is not right administratively or legally to ask an inferior officer to investigate a superior officer. The president as a law lecturer and Associate Professor in Law knows this basic thing.
“In any event, it is not the conduct of only the Attorney General’s office which has been called into question in the Woyome saga but as well, that of the Finance Minister and the office of the president himself," he added.
He said Mills’ comments that there is a liability means government has accepted responsibility for the judgement debt and which could only be worrying, especially when Woyome had conceded he had not signed any personal contract with the then government.
He said for Mills to say he does not want to embarrass anybody with the EOCO investigations can only mean one thing: “Now the cat is out of the bag. When the president said he doesn’t want to embarrass anyone, what he really meant was that he does not want to embarrass himself, his office, his ministers and his so-called financiers who are looting the coffers of the state to sponsor his campaign.
“Obviously the president knew about and indeed authorized payments to Woyome,” he noted.
According to him, the Finance Ministry paid the money to Woyome with the explicit authorization from the presidency and found it rather hypocritical that the president turned around asking for a report as if he was unaware of the whole incident.
He said the NDC “stands accused” in the Woyome saga and called for a truly independent commission with a clout similar to that of Ghana@50 and whose hearing should be made public for all to see.
Joy News’ Sammy Darko who was present at the news conference reported the NPP MPs were undoubtedly convinced the presidency is involved in the whole Woyome case.
They will not however say their next line of action if their consistent calls for an independent investigation go unheeded.
From: Ghana|Myjoyonline.com|Nathan Gadugah
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