Audio Attachment:Listen to the counsel for Hon. O.B. Amoah, Mr Thaddeus Sory in an interview with Peace Fm's Kwami Sefa Kayi |
A former Deputy Education and Sports Minister in the erstwhile Kufuor administration, Hon O. B. Amoah, has been arrested by the police for questioning in connection with the controversial GH�51 million judgment debt payment to embattled NDC businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome.
Peacefmonline.com is reliably informed that Hon Amoah was picked up on Sunday night at about 9pm GMT at his Parakuo Estates residence, near Dome, and was whisked away by heavily �armed police men� in the presence of his wife to the Police Criminal Investigations Department (CID) headquarters.
An "emotionally disturbed" wife of the ex-deputy minister is reported to have disclosed that the police cited the Woyome saga as basis for the arrest.
Sources say he faces charges of corruption and wilfully causing financial loss to the state.
Hon. O.B. Amoah is the fifth person to be arrested in connection with the matter after the Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO) presented its Interim Report to President Mills in February.
Mr Woyome and three others, Chief State Attorney, Samuel Nerquaye-Tetteh and his wife Gifty Nerquaye-Tetteh and the Director of Legal Affairs at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr. Paul Asimenu are currently facing six charges.
According to the EOCO Interim Report: �Mr. O.B. Amoah was the Deputy Minister who gave the green light for Waterville to proceed to site and start work at the time the contract had not been approved by Parliament.�
Mr Amoah is on record to have authorised construction firm Waterville Holdings to move to the Accra and Kumasi sports stadia to begin rehabilitation works before a formal contract for CAN 2008 was signed. But it has subsequently been explained that a Memorandum of Understanding between Waterville and the Government of Ghana formed the basis for his letter.
Meanwhile, peacefmonline.com can confirm that scores of NPP supporters and sympathizers infuriated at the night arrest of the Aburi-Nsawam MP, have massed up at the police headquarters. Several NPP stalwarts have also rushed to the Police CID headquarters to empathize with their colleague.
They are demanding to know why the state will go after the NPP MP instead of the likes of former Attorney General, Betty Mould -Iddrisu and Finance Minister, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, under whose watch Mr. Woyome was paid the Ghc51 million judgment debt.
The police, as part of the public order policing and riot-control tactics, have set up a barricade and cordoned the area leading to the entrance of the headquarters. They have also brought in the anti-riot squad and have threatened to use their water cannons on the irate crowd.
Source: Nana Kwadwo Asante/Peacefmonline.com
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