Betty Mould-Iddrisu Tackles Woyome Saga

A former Attorney General, Madam Betty Mould-Iddrisu, has maintained that her role in the judgement debt paid Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome is not triable. According to her, the fact that she has since not been put before any court in that regard confirms her stand that her action could not be tried.

Mr Woyome sued Ghana for a breach of contract in relation to the construction of some stadia for the 2008 African Cup of Nations (CAN), hosted by Ghana. He was subsequently awarded a judgement debt to a tune of GH¢51 million, because the state failed to put in a defence.

However, Mr Woyome was arrested on February 3, 2011, after the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), commissioned by President John Evans Atta Mills to investigate the matter, had implicated him of wrongdoing.

In his statement of claim on March 31, 2010, Mr Woyome noted that the then Attorney General, Betty Mould-Iddrisu, wrote to request payment by informing the then Minister for Finance, Kwabena Duffuor, that he was claiming two per cent compensation fee for financial engineering on the mobilisation of funds for the CAN project, and that she had reached a settlement with him.

Paragraph 17 of Woyome’s statement of claim in court said the Finance Minister, on April 6, 2010, wrote to the Controller and Accountant General asking for the release of funds to pay the claim of Ghana cedi equivalent of 22,129,501.74 Euros.

According to further reports, on May 28, 2010, Betty Mould wrote again to the Finance Minister, after Kwabena Duffuor did not follow her instructions, informing him that Woyome had sued and successfully obtained a default judgement of a total of GH¢51,283,480.59, including interests and costs.

Speaking to Kwabena Kyenkyenhene Boateng, host of ’21 minutes with KKB’ yesterday, Betty Mould-Iddrisu indicated that she did what was expected of her in accordance with the law.

She further told the host: “You know I wasn’t Attorney General when he [Woyome] was paid the bulk of the money, and, for me, it wasn’t about the money, difficult though it may seem in people’s eyes. It was about the principle of doing the right thing, and I am always glad; I always tell people that there is a God, a just God, especially when you are a lawyer, you can be cleared through the court system. I was not on trial; I was never on trial. I don’t think that my actions were triable,” she said.

She continued: “In the end, when the Court of Appeal, the three Appeals Court Judges gave a verdict on whether this money was procured fraudulently, and my role in the issue came up, they all insisted Betty Mould-Iddrisu, as Attorney General, acted professionally; she acted competently; she followed due diligence, and that was it. She exercised her official actions as a lawyer and as an Attorney General, and that is what you need. And that is the kind of validation that, quite frankly, some of your media folks were making me doubt myself.”

Commenting on whether she was misled into doing what she did, Betty said: “I think I am competent to know and to take responsibility for my own actions within a certain context. I don’t have a problem with that. It is only the Good Lord who can judge our actions; that at a certain point in time we acted professionally; we acted in accordance with the law; we acted competently. There was never a day, never one day of doubt in my mind, that I was not doing the right thing.”