<<Print>>

“From day one this whole thing was not well packaged and it was not well packaged because it was intended not to be well packaged. It is politics; dubious politics,” says the Editor-In-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako.

Mr Baako was speaking to the recent acquittal and discharge of all the charges leveled against businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome.

High Court judge, Justice Ajet-Nassam acquitted and discharged the NDC financier on all counts of willfully causing financial loss to the state and defrauding by false pretense.

He said in his ruling that the prosecution was not thorough in its case and wondered why key actors in the scandal, including former Attorney General Betty Mould Iddrisu, and her Deputy Ebo Barton Oduro were not made to testify in the case.

He said the prosecution failed to prove its case against the suspect and therefore he had no choice than to allow the accuse to walk.

But speaking to this during a panel discussion on PEACE FM's morning show ‘Kokrokoo’, Kweku Baako opined that "some points raised by the judge did not make sense".

“All the institutions of state and the people who man them appear to be failing the country [in this Woyome scandal]. I can swear that this particular high court judgement and what the judge puts out there as the basis of his acquittal and exoneration of the accused I say, is suspect”, he said.

The seasoned joournalist further stated that the trial judge's agreement with the former A-G, Madam Betty Mould Iddrisu and current First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Ebo Barton Odro, that there was a contract between government and Mr Woyome, a contract secured through a concurrent approval by the Central Tender Review Board was inexplicable.

To him, the ruling has compounded the issue.

“There were points made by the judge that did not make sense...the judge appeared to have ignored the evidence put before him…you can say that the prosecution was sloppy, shoddy and all that, but I can tell you that the evidence that was put before that judge and the closing address by the state, no matter the sloppiness, the verdict should not have gone in favour of the accused (Woyome)…The judgment itself is suspect and that is why I am for the appeal; that is what is making me sad as a Ghanaian. I have not attacked the judiciary but (attacked) a particular judgment,” he said.

Whiles openly backing government’s decision to appeal the ruling, "even if it is the devil or satan who will initiate the appeal", Kweku Baako averred that the beleaguered businessman cannot be trusted and is simply attempting to throw a wrench in the appeal process.

“Woyome is just wasting our ears and trying to muddy the waters and throw a spanner into the A-G works. I don’t trust him…nothing he says is of value to me....As far as I’m concerned that judgement must be subjected to appeal, even if it is the devil or satan who will initiate the appeal I will support it. I think it will be in the interest of justice,” the New Crusading Guide Editor said.