I'm A Wrong Target

Wednesday, 22 February 2012 13:13

Written by ghanapolitics.net

Member of Parliament for Aburi/Nsawam, Osei Bonsu Amoah, yesterday told the police investigating the Woyome scandal to look elsewhere for perpetrators in the gargantuan crime, stressing he was a wrong target.

OB Amoah, a former deputy minister for sports, science and education under the Kufuor administration, was arrested by armed police Sunday evening at his Parakuo Estate residence at Dome and detained in police cells over the Woyome scandal in which the Mills administration had doled out over GH¢51million to Alfred Agbesi Woyome for no work done.

Answering questions at a news conference organised by the Minority caucus in Parliament yesterday, Mr. Amoah strongly indicated he had not done anything wrong in connection with the scandal to warrant his arrest by the police.

The former deputy minister said it would be baseless for anybody to accuse him of corruption and causing financial loss to the state when he had not done anything for which the nation had lost money, neither had he been part of the group that 'fraudulently' paid money to Mr. Woyome.

Explaining why he issued a letter asking Waterville to move to site for the construction of stadia for the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations hosted under the Kufuor administration, Mr. Amoah said it was based on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between government of Ghana and Waterville/Consar/Mitchelliti for the project.

He further explained that under the MOU, Waterville was supposed to provide finances for the projects while local contractors, Micheletti and Consor, were to undertake the actual construction of the Kumasi, Accra and Elwak stadia.

He said beyond this, a contract was also signed in April 2005 and by August 1st, 'the Attorney-General had written to Waterville, not the local contractors, that in your case, you've not been able to raise the funding, the purpose of which a contract was signed with you. In that case, we cannot send any agreement that we had with you to cabinet and Parliament to make it effective because you have not fulfilled the condition precedent'.

He said when the NPP administration was leaving, 'we had told the whole world that every money due Waterville in this arrangement have been paid to the local contractors who have never denied it - either Consar for Kumasi or Mitchelliti for El-Wak and Accra. This is what happened. Now where does the causing financial loss come in?'

'In my case, I worked under four ministers - Hon. Osafo Marfo first, Papa Owusu Ankomah, Prof. Dominic Fobih, Ms. Ohene and I never took any decision on my own,' he stated, adding, 'What I wrote at that it was Consar, especially, which had requested that they wanted to go to site as contractors because we were waiting for CAF to come and inspect and find out whether we were beginning to do the construction for them to give us the go ahead for the games'.

'I am therefore surprised that Waterville will come back after NPP had left power, claiming government owed them,' Mr. Amoah noted.

The Mills administration had doled out about â‚¬25million to Waterville based on the 'dubious' claims, tossing a huge debt to the Ghanaian taxpayer.

He also debunked claims that Mr. Woyome had given him GH¢75,000 as gift from the GH¢51 million, pointing out the money was used to purchase 20 plots of land for Woyome for a water project at Kitase in Aburi/Nsawam.

According to him, Mr. Woyome had already sunk 12 boreholes on the land, adding there were documents covering his claim.

By Awudu Mahama

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