Defreezing Of Woyme�s Accounts�AFAG Blames A-G�s Office

An Executive Member of the pressure group, Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), Henry Haruna Asante, is laying blame at the doorstep of the Attorney General�s Department for the decision by the Appeals Court to defreeze assets and accounts belonging to businessman, Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome. According to Henry Asante, AFAG had earlier expressed worry about the way and manner the A-G office was handling Mr. Woyome�s case since they are the only outfit mandated to represent the state in court when it comes to legal matters. �Attorney General (AG) office for what we (AFAG) know is to appoint lawyers to represent the state when it comes to matters of such. I was surprise to have heard that even the name �Alfred� was spelt as �Albert Woyome� in court. We all know there are technicalities in court so the Judge even had to withdraw some files since it does not tally with his original document in his possession bearing the name Alfred Woyome ��Secondly, if the Appeals Court orders the release of Woyome�s bank assets, then what is the duty of the Attorney General�s department who are to appoint lawyers to defend the state�? If you follow this case closely, government lawyers don�t appear in court so this led to Woyome expressing worry for multiple adjournments because the state failed to produce witness. We (AFAG) believes the AG is trying to play tricks on Ghanaians,� he stated. Speaking on PEACE FM, Henry Asante stated clearly that AFAG does not have any problem with the court�s decision since the state failed to provide witnesses for the hearing. �It seems to us (AFAG) that lawyers appointed to defend the state don�t see the value of the case to help the nation retrieve its money from Woyome. We have cause to suspect there is corruption going on in the AG�s department that is why no serious effort is been made to handle the case efficiently.� The AFAG Executive Member further stated that they will hold the AG�s office accountable for their inability to defend the state in retrieving the whooping amount of money doled out to Alfred Woyome as judgment debt. The Court of Appeal, by a unanimous decision on Thursday, ordered that accounts belonging to the beleaguered businessman be released to him. The court, presided over by Mrs Henrietta Abban, however, also ruled that except the accounts held at the Agricultural Development Bank (which is still frozen because it is through which the 51 million cedis transaction was done), all other accounts belonging to Mr. Woyome must be returned.