Osafo-Maafo Must Come Clean Or Else� - Kwesi Pratt

Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr., has asked one-time Sports and Finance Minister in the erstwhile Kufuor administration, Yaw Osafo-Maafo to defend himself against allegations leveled against him and ex-President Kufuor by a leading member of the governing National Democratic Congress and bring closure to the issue. According to him, if he (Osafo-Maafo) fails to do so, it will not bode well for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) considering the fact that he is a member of Nana Akufo-Addo�s campaign team and was once head of the ministry in charge of the bidding process. Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) bankroller who was doled out GH�41,811,480.59 of state money in a court settlement, told a media briefing in Accra, that he won the huge amount squarely, because the Kufuor administration ditched him after winning the contract to execute a job in connection with the renovation of the two leading stadia in the country, and the construction of an additional two. The NDC guru who reportedly contributed extremely generously at a recent fund-raising ceremony for the party and also funded some officials of the NDC to witness the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, said he went to court to redeem the losses he suffered after the erstwhile Kufuor administration denied him the right to renovate various stadia prior to the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations. A High Court in 2010 ordered the State to pay an amount of GH�42 million in judgment debt to Mr. Woyome over what he describes as the illegal termination of his contract. But reports indicate that the judgment was given in default of a defence by the Attorney General�s Department. Some critics, have therefore, accused officials of the AG�s Department of deliberately refusing to defend the state to enable Mr. Woyome win the case. At the same press conference, Mr. Woyome, who is a co-opted member of the Volta Regional Executive of the NDC, alleged that high ranking officials in the Kufuor administration attempted to kill him. He recounted an incident in which he claimed over 200 policemen besieged the court premises with an order to shoot him on sight. He was then pursuing a case against a Nigerian pastor in the Supreme Court. �Thank God there were good people in that administration who do not want that,� he said.