Nobody will escape Woyome dragnet, arrest just the beginning – Ablakwa

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Deputy Information Minister

Deputy Information Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has served notice the arrest and detention Friday of businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome by the police is only the beginning of a series of actions Ghanaians must be looking to in connection with the judgment debt payment scandal.

Ablakwa told Joy FM President John Mills has ordered the actions to be carried out to serve the national interest, ensure accountability and the culpable punished.

Woyome was arrested Friday afternoon and has since been in the custody of the Ghana Police Service at its headquarters in Accra. Indications are that he will spend the weekend in custody and processed for court on Monday.

“It is important to establish that what is being unveiled before us now is the beginning of a series of actions which the president has outlined to be carried out in this matter and his objective is to ensure that the national interest is served, is to ensure that whoever is in the wrong possession of monies belonging to the state of Ghana, that person is dealt with according to law and as much as possible retrievals are made so that the state of Ghana can get its money back and we can also be looking at possible prosecutions in this matter. So there are series of actions which the president has outlined and this is just the beginning,” he told Joy FM's Dzifa Bampoh.

Early Saturday morning a police detachment mounted a combat-ready front at the entrance of the section of the Police Headquarters where Woyome is being held. On Friday five women were arrested for storming the police headquarters to demand his release.

The payment of about GHS58 million judgment to Alfred Woyome has been the focus of media and political discussions for the past two months and only on Thursday, the Economic and Organised Crimes Office presented an interim report of its investigations to President Mills. The report indicted Woyome and other serving and past public officers who all face arrest.

Okudzeto Ablakwa intimated no one who must face the law in the matter will escape. “That won't happen, because the president is very much on top of this situation, he knows what he has rolled out and there is no cause for alarm. We can assure the good people of this country that nobody will escape the net.”

Story by Isaac Yeboah