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The trial of Alfred Agbesi Woyome, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) financier, over the GH�51.28million fraud perpetrated against the state in a judgment debt saga, yesterday took a dramatic twist when the state entered a nolle prosequi, which meant the state was unwilling to prosecute the case. However, Mr Woyome was stunned when he was re-arrested and charged with willfully causing financial loss to the state to tune of GH�51.28million and defrauding by false pretences. Woyome, according to the prosecutor, made fraudulent misrepresentation to the state when he had no contract with the Ghana government. He was standing trial with three other persons who were also discharged but were not re-arrested alongside the NDC financier. Woyome has denied any wrongdoing and is on a GH�20million bail with three sureties, but this time, he would not report to the police twice a week as was the case under the previous bail conditions. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) however was not amused by the legal gymnastics being played by Government and its leading members including Director of Communications Nana Akomea said the latest development was only a joke and a ploy to throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians. Earlier, Cynthia Lamptey, the state attorney, who was supposed to begin the trial yesterday as ordered by the court, informed the Fast Track High Court Financial Division hearing the case that she was entering a nolle prosequi on the matter after informing the court she had taken a statement from Woyome. Samuel Nerquaye-Tetteh, a Chief State Attorney, his wife Gifty Nerquaye-Tetteh and Paul Asimenu, Legal Director at the Ministry of Finance, who were standing trial with Woyome, were consequently let off the hook by the Judge, Justice John Ajet-Nassan, in compliance with the state counsel�s wishes. Yoni Kulendi, counsel for Paul Asimenu, did not seem very convinced about the latest development and said defence counsel should have been served notice; but that did not happen and wondered what the state wanted to do. But the trial judge said he could not read the mind of the state. However, Woyome remained uneasy even when his colleagues had left the court premises and was glued to his seat, making his supporters to wait around the court in the hope that the state would not bring any further action against their hero. Their suspicions were confirmed when a few minutes later, the state brought fresh charges against Woyome. Robertson Kpatsa prayed for bail for his client and it was consequently granted. Ms Lamptey, who presented the facts of the case to the court, traced the genesis of the fraud to 2005. She said in January 2005, the Government of Ghana invited bids for the rehabilitation of the Ohene Djan Sports Stadium in Accra and Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi as well as two stadia at Sekondi/Takoradi and Tamale. She said at the end of the bidding process, a number of companies were shortlisted and invited to submit their proposals and among these companies were M-Powapak Gmb/Vamed Engineering & Co. According to her, at the end of the evaluation process, the Finance and Evaluation Committee declared M-Powapak/Vamed as the most responsive and recommended them to the Central Tender Review Board but said before the tender could be received, the Government terminated the process. The state attorney noted that in the course of the tender process, Vamed Engineering had assigned its right and responsibilities to Waterville Holdings (BVI) Ltd, adding that after the process, Waterville protested against the termination. She said Waterville got the Government to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with it to commence the rehabilitation of Accra and El-Wak stadia and noted that the MoU was signed on November 30, 2005 and it required Waterville to engineer the fund for the project on behalf of Government of Ghana from the Bank of Austria Creditanstalk AG. Furthermore, she stated that the money was supposed to be guaranteed by the World Bank�s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and explained that Waterville was also supposed to arrange bridge financing. In addition, she said subsequent to the MoU, Waterville engaged M-Powapak, led by Woyome, to provide financial engineering services in respect of the projects and a formal contract for the rehabilitation for the Accra and El-Wak stadia was entered between the Government of Ghana and Waterville Holdings on April 26, 2006. However, she said, even before the contract could be effective, it was terminated by the government due to the inability of Waterville to fund the project, among others, as contained in the MoU which formed a condition precedent to the contract. Explaining further, the state attorney observed that Waterville initially protested the termination but eventually accepted the termination and proceeded to claim money and were paid a substantial amount which was acknowledged by Woyome in a termination agreement dated November 25, 2006, bringing the relationship between them to an end. Ms Lamptey said the accused person, after receiving the money under financial engineering services, took advantage of the change in government and falsely represented to Government officials that the government owed him money for the contract with Waterville. Woyome, the state attorney noted, had no contract with the government and added that Woyome claimed that as part of financial engineering, he managed to arrange a total of �1,106,407,587 for the government of Ghana through the Bank of Austria Creditanstalk, out of which he claimed he was to be paid 2% as fees. Explaining further, she said investigations revealed that no such funds were made available for the benefit of the country from Bank Austria as claimed by Woyome and said investigations also revealed that he did not have any contract with government to provide any services. She observed that the only arrangement with financial engineering Woyome had was with Waterville which services had been fully paid for and acknowledged by him in a termination agreement. Ms Lamptey stated that based on these fraudulent misrepresentations, Woyome succeeded in getting the government to pay him an amount of GH�51 283,480.59, thereby willfully and fraudulently causing financial loss to the state. The case has been adjourned to June 12, 2012.