Gloria Akuffo Will Retrieve Woyome’s Loot

He may not have colluded with Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome, but it was the late President John Evans Atta-Mills who brazenly stood alongside the infamous National Democratic Congress’ major financier or underwriter and sneeringly told the world that this mega-thief owed Ghana absolutely zilch. But, of course, President Atta-Mill’s own Attorney-General and Minister of Justice knew perfectly well that his then visibly ill boss was lying through his Colgate-white teeth, when in front of a sea of microphones and media cameras, the former Legon tax-law professor moved Heaven and Hell by imperiously insisting that the Trokosi Nationalist Fiscal Scam-Artist, who had been thunderously celebrated and applauded in the Ho-Asogli Traditional Area as an Ewe-National Hero, was actually a selfless philanthropist of rarefied integrity and dignity.

Mr. Martin Alamisi Amidu would adamantly insist on retrieving the GHȻ 51.2 Million that Mr. Woyome claimed to have legitimately earned through the facilitation of the construction of several soccer stadiums – yes, here in America, you can actually say “stadiums” in place of “stadia” – for Ghana’s 2008 hosting of the African Cup of Nations (CAN). You see, men of substance and integrity like Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo, the former Sports Minister in the government of President John Agyekum-Kufuor, would vehemently protest this grossly misguided, if also mischievously deliberate, attempt by the newly elected Atta-Mills’ regime but to absolutely no avail. So far, we know that Mr. Woyome has paid a diddly GHȻ 4.6 Million of the GHȻ 51.2 Million owed (See “Alfred Woyome’s Properties to Be Used to Settle Debts” MyJoyOnline.com / Modernghana.com 8/14/18). But, of course, this has been in spite of all the pontifical promises and moral grandstanding put up by then Interim-President John Dramani Mahama in the leadup to the 2012 general election.

It would soon turn out that the former Atta-Mills’ Vice-President was merely jiving, when he boastfully thumped his chest and promised that if any leader was capable of retrieving the Woyome Loot and returning it intact to where it aptly belonged, that is, into our National Treasury, he was definitely the “It.” It would shortly turn out that, indeed, the former National Democratic Congress’ Member of Parliament for Gonja-West, in the Northern Region, was merely pulling wool over the eyes of the hardworking and longsuffering Ghanaian taxpayer. That was also, of course, before the general public learned Mr. Mahama’s own Brazil-made Embraer Jet Scam, reportedly, totaling between $178-200 Million (USD), depending on whom you talk to. Well, he has been fiercely resistant, but he also knows perfectly well that he has absolutely no chance to legally circumvent this indelible and inescapable fiscal responsibility of his.

Whatever little this mega-thief has consented to paying until now, has actually been through the yeomanly and indefatigable instrumentality of Attorney-General Akuffo. But, of course, not even many staunch or bona fide members and operatives of the ruling New Patriotic Party are aware of this very significant fact. Which may very well explain why recently one party loyalist wrote and published an article direly predicting that if in December 2020, Ghanaian voters decided to jackboot President Akufo-Addo out of Jubilee House, it would squarely be the fault of Attorney-General Akuffo and Mr. Martin Amidu, the Independent Special Public Prosecutor. Now, this kind of alarmist and patently inconsiderate assessment of these two leading government attorneys is tantamount to screaming too loudly about absolutely nothing, although it is also perfectly understandable.

Indeed, even as she painstakingly and meticulously explained the other day, in every civilized constitutional democracy, such as Ghana is doggedly pursuing, even clearly established and convicted thieves like Mr. Woyome deserve their day – and sometimes even days and weeks and months – in court during the appeals process. The august Supreme Court of Ghana also has already established the criminal culpability of Mr. Woyome, who has curiously decided to deliberately sing his nauseatingly boring song, once more, before the African Human Rights Court, in apparently hopeless hope of both buying undeserved time, whatever this may be worth, as well as being let off the hook. You see, the latter court, which is located in the Tanzanian city of Arusha, East Africa, has absolutely no superior jurisdiction over the last-resort rights and privileges of the Supreme Court of Ghana in the subject-matter of the sort of criminal malfeasance that we are talking about. At the very best, all that the African Human Rights Court can do is to determine the fact of whether, indeed, any of the rights of this mega-thief and blood-dripping robber-baron have been ridden roughshod over or violated by the Government of Ghana in the latter’s unimpeachably legitimate process of compelling the criminal convict to return his loot.

Whether, as he has clearly and publicly indicated in the recent past, Mr. Woyome divvied up his loot with the other robber-barons or key operatives of the main opposition National Democratic Congress, and even with some of his cronies across the proverbial political divide is absolutely beside the point. The fact of the matter is that Mr. Woyome’s criminal culpability has already been firmly established well beyond any reasonable iota of doubt. Our main concern here, however, regards just precisely how long “a reasonable period” is within which this mega-thief must make good on his irreversible judicial conviction and the fulfillment of the requirements of the punishment that such conviction entails.

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