NPP Smells Cover Up In Amidu’s Sack

Nana Akomea

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has pointed at a cover-up by government in the Woyomegate debacle, describing the payment to Alfred Woyome as a stinking rip-off.

According to a statement signed by Nana Akomea, NPP's Director of Communications, Martin Amidu's Tuesday 17 th January 2012 press statement exposed 'government's efforts to cover up on the stinking payment of public money to a self-confessed NDC financier, Mr. Alfred Woyome.'

An Auditor General's report to Parliament suggested that in 2010 the NDC government paid out tranches of money to Alfred Woyome, which came out last October 2011.

'The Auditor General reported to Parliament that in 2010, the NDC government paid out GH¢58million (¢580billion) in a so-called judgment debt to Mr. Woyome. 

'The report stated that the first payment was done on 4th June 2010 (GH¢41.8 or ¢ 418 billion) and the second payment done on the 26 th of September 2010 (GH¢17.0 or ¢170 billion),' the statement explained. 

Additional payments were made in the first week of January 2012 and subsequent months, the NPP said.

'If the Auditor General stated in his letter that the GH¢41.8m payments were stopped in April 2010, how come he reported on it in June 2010 when the payment was supposed to have been stopped in April 2010?' the party queried.

Turning to the President, the party wondered why he did not know about what was happening regarding this issue when 'all letters of this affair from the Attorney General to the Minister of Finance and vice-versa were all copied to the office of the President?', adding, 'If the President really did not know, or was not briefed, what else is our President not told about?'

Another question the NPP posed, whose answer might give a clearer picture about what remained a murky affair was: 'How come after the court had granted the government a stay of execution on the GH¢34m on September 6, 2010, the government still went ahead and paid the GH¢34m in 2011?'

The Amidu press statement, the party noted, put a finality to the deep public suspicion of a cover-up in the Woyome payout as it (NPP) questioned the integrity of the leadership being offered by President Mills under the disturbing circumstances.

The decline by NPP officials to cooperate with the EOCO, the party explained, was borne out of a deep suspicion about cover-up actions in the Woyome affair.

'The officials are fully ready to take part in an enquiry/investigation that would be conducted in public by an independent body, and this is what the bi-partisan Public Accounts Committee of Parliament offers,' the statement expatiated.

The NPP, the statement declared, had joined their compatriots in demanding to know which minister Mr. Amidu alluded to in his bombshell press release, adding, 'The NPP and Ghanaians want nothing less than the whole truth in this Woyome pay-out.!'

By A.R. Gomda