Kweku Baako urges NDC to admit gargantuan error in Woyome Saga

Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, wants officials of the Mills-led government to admit they erred in paying GHS 51 million judgment debt to businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome instead of making up excuses to cover their mistake.

He was reacting to charges by Deputy Information Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa – on Peace FM's Kokrokoo – that some officials under the erstwhile Kufuor-administration took away vital documents relating to the Woyome scandal and contracts with Waterville.

Former Chief of Staff Kwadwo Mpiani and ex-minister of State at the Finance Ministry, Anthony Akoto Osei – who were fingered Mr Ablakwa – have all denied the allegation. Dr Wereko Brobby, Chief Executive Officer of the defunct Ghana@50 Celebration was also accused of taking with him documents relating to the Ghana@50 investigations but he was said to have returned them only after being asked to do so.

But Mr Kweku Baako believes the issue was not worth discussing because it was not only an exercise of self indictment by government but that it reduced the governance of this nation to the base level.

He wondered how government was able to pay huge judgment debts to Woyome and Waterville without verifying their claims from relevant documents.

'What is this? This is absolute rubbish. Why are we doing so much injustice to our integrity as a nation?' Malik Baako quizzed and again questioned why governance was being reduced to pettiness.

Admitting the possibility that official documents could get lost, Kweku Baako said Mr Ablakwa's allegation reflected his ignorance about how the civil service structure worked.

Ministers, he contended, did not handle files on their own.

The editor insisted that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government lacked understanding of its mandate if indeed there was truth in the files theft allegation, especially when those accused to have been involved had been left off the hook.

Kweku Baako noted that government's attempt to indict past officials in the Woyome scandal by all means only exposed them the more.

'Let our friends [NDC] admit that this [Woyome scandal] was a gargantuan error of judgment on their [government's] part', he concluded.

Source: Myjoyonline