Woyome Saga: Another Judge Disappointed With AG

State prosecutors handling the case of Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome yesterday failed to produce their next witness in court. The Chief State Attorney, Mr Matthew Amponsah, who informed the court that it was unfortunate that the state could not avail their next witness in court, said the witnesses had not been within the jurisdiction for a long time. He explained that the witnesses were employees of the various companies that were involved in the transaction, which was the subject matter of the case. He added that they (prosecution) got the witnesses at a short notice and that in the course of their interaction with them they realised they needed some valuable documents from them. �After they drew our attention to the said documents we think that the documents are relevant to the case. Due to the short interval the documents were not made available to us and so we would pray the court to grant us a short adjournment to help us prepare fully for the next adjourned date,� Mr Amponsah told the court. The trial judge, Justice John Ajet-Nasam, who was not happy with the submissions of the state, questioned the prosecutor if the state was really ready to go on with the case. He said at the last adjourned date the state indicated to the court that they never knew the defence would finish with their cross examination of the first witness, Mrs Mangowa Ghanney, that early and that they could have called their next witness. He added that he was surprised at the state�s submission and indicated, �I take a great exception to the line of the prosecution.� Justice Ajet-Nasam asked the prosecution if there were no other witnesses to be called in the case aside those witnesses from the companies. �I am not pleased, I am not happy and I am disappointed. I believe we should all be up and doing to promote the interest of the state,� he added. The defence counsel, Mr Musa Ahmed, told the court that they had taken due notice of the chief state attorney�s assertions explaining their inability to produce their next witness before the court. He said the decision to grant an adjournment to the matter was entirely at the discretion of the court. The trial judge adjourned the case to July 12 and 13 to enable the state to produce their next witness or witnesses in court. Mrs Mangowa Ghanney, a lawyer from the legal department of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, is so far the only prosecution witness who has given evidence in court over the trial of Mr Woyome in the GH�51.2 million judgement debt saga.