Woyome scandal: I begged Betty but she 'snubbed' the state – AG suggests

Ghana’s Attorney General (AG) has revealed that she “personally begged” former AG Betty Mould Idrissu to be a prosecution witness in the controversial Alfred Woyome case but she refused.

Many had questioned why Mrs. Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong did not call Mrs. Mould Idrissu and her deputy at the time Ebo Barton Odro, who were deemed key witnesses, in the case in which Mr. Woyome was alleged to have defrauded the state.

The businessman was acquitted and discharged on two counts of causing financial loss to the state and defrauding by false pretence by an Accra High Court last week.

The state is however appealing the ruling.

Mrs. Mould Idrissu was the Attorney General who authorised the payment of GHC51 million in a controversial judgement debt. A Supreme Court has declared the payment as fraudulent and ordered the beneficiary to refund the money to the state.

But the former Attorney General has insisted that Mr. Woyome deserved to be paid that amount and she was right in authorizing payment.

For this reason, she declined being used as a prosecution witness against Mr. Woyome, Mrs. Brew Appiah-Oppong told Joy News’ Manasseh Azure Awuni.

She stressed that Mrs. Mould-Iddrisu declined her plea and insisted that the decisions she took to pay the money to Woyome were justifiable.

If she (Mould-Idrissu) was forced, she could become a “hostile witness” and that would have destroyed the case of the state further, Mrs. Brew Appiah-Oppong is reported to have said.

On why Betty Mould Iddrisu and others have not been prosecuted for their role in paying the fraudulent judgement debt, the AG told Manasseh, a decision was taken not to prosecute them even before she assumed office.

She said the prosecution was almost completed before she stepped in. Six out of the nine witnesses were called before she became the Attorney General.

Apart from Woyome, all the rest named in the scandal can be prosecuted, but she would not say whether government would do that or when.

RESPONSE TO NPP

She said the NPP had a fertile imagination to suggest that the exchanges between her and Woyome was stage managed. The presidency would not plot something to allow Woyome to attack her, she said.

Source: Myjoyonline.com

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