GH�42m To Woyome - NDC Youth Asked To Use Lawful Means To Seek Redress

A youth group in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has called on all those who suspect any foul play in the payment of GH�42 million to Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome by the state to use lawful means to seek redress. The group, which calls itself the Volta Regional NDC Youth for Action, also expressed worry at the unprovoked media attacks by leading members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), including its flag bearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and especially the silence of the Ministry of Information, particularly a Deputy Minister of Information, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, over the issue. Addressing a press conference in Accra Thursday, the convenor of the group, Mr Agbe Mawunyo, noted that �it is strange that intellectuals will not use appellate processes of the court system to resolve their disagreement over a court verdict but regrettably resort to the use of the media to attack the reputation of a lawful citizen who had decided to use lawful procedure to resolve his grievances�. �In fact, the ongoing debate by the NPP has nothing to do with Ghana losing money that could be used for development. It is about what political mileage that money can bring to the NDC and also develop the Volta Region,� he added According to Mr Mawunyo, the group was not worried about the decision of the President and subsequent actions by state institutions because all those actions were within the confines of the law. He added that its beef was with those people, especially NPP members, who had resorted to all kinds of insults, vituperations and name calling, just to vilify Mr Woyome without any legal or tangible reasons. He wondered why the NPP, whose actions and inaction had led to the payment of the money to Mr Woyome, could openly protest against calls by President Mills to use lawful means, including the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO). Mr Mawunyo wondered why the Kufuor administration abrogated a statutory contract which had been duly awarded by the Central Tender Review Board to Mr Woyome and his partners, Waterville, only to re-award it to a company that neither qualified nor bid for the contract. He called on the leadership of the NPP to offer an unqualified apology to Mr Woyome for victimising him and his business partners during the eight-year rule of the Kufuor administration and urged the NPP to again suspend Nana Akufo-Addo as its flag bearer for his role in the Kufuor government that illegally terminated a lawful contract. �Indeed, it is as a result of this action that the state has been called upon by the court to pay this huge sum of money as judgement debt,� he added. Mr Mawunyo said the group supported President Mills�s call for investigations into the issue and added that it also had no problem with the decision of EOCO to freeze Mr Woyome�s accounts.