Thursday, January 19,2011 (Page 3 Lead)
A former Minister of State, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, has dragged the Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO) to the Fast Track High Court, challenging EOCO’s decision to invite him to testify in investigations into the payment of GH¢58 million to a businessman, Mr Alfred Woyome.
According to Mr Osafo-Maafo, who was once a Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, public utterances by the President, the Deputy Attorney-General and the EOCO clearly indicated bias and the likelihood that the investigations would be prejudiced against him.
He is, accordingly, praying the court to declare that the purported investigations being undertaken by EOCO into what he termed suspected serious offences, including fraud in the award and execution of contract for the construction of stadia for CAN 2008, and an invitation to him to assist in investigations were unlawful to the extent that they were issues raised in a report of the Auditor-General duly laid before Parliament.
The plaintiff is further praying the court to declare that the circumstances involving the payment of the colossal sum of GH¢58,095,974.13 to Mr Woyome and the acts and utterances of the President, the Deputy Attorney-General and the EOCO disabled EOCO from acting in a fair and reasonable manner.
Mr Osafo-Maafo, who is also a former Minister of Education, is pleading with the court to declare that the purported investigations being undertaken by EOCO were actuated by bias and prejudice and, therefore, unlawful under the 1992 Constitution.
He is also seeking an order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendant from proceeding with the investigations into the so-called suspected serious offences, including fraud in the award and execution of contract for the construction of stadia for CAN 2008, as well as other reliefs the court might deem fit.
At the court’s sitting in Accra yesterday, the trial judge, Mr Justice Dennis Adjei, a Court of Appeal judge with additional responsibilities as a High Court judge, appealed to parties in the case not to take any steps that would prejudice the outcome of the case.
The matter could not be heard by the court yesterday because counsel for EOCO, Dr Philip Anderson, had sent a letter and a medical report indicating that he was indisposed.
Counsel for Mr Osafo-Maafo, Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame, then prayed the court to stop EOCO from continuing with investigations until the final determination of the matter.
The presiding judge advised Mr Dame to file an application for contempt against EOCO but Mr Dame said it would not serve any purpose, since the investigations might be completed before court processes were filed.
Mr Osafo-Maafo was accompanied to the court by a former Deputy Minister of Sports, Mr O. B. Amoah; Mr Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, a former Deputy Minister of Finance, and other sympathisers.
Meanwhile, the plaintiff has filed an application for interlocutory injunction for an order to restrain EOCO and its agents from continuing with investigations into the award and execution of contract for the construction of stadia for CAN 2008 pending the final determination of the suit.
According to the applicant, who said he received a letter dated January 5, 2012 inviting him to assist in EOCO’s investigations, his suit had a great chance of success and so unless EOCO was restrained by the court, he would suffer irreparable loss.
An affidavit in support of his suit stated that EOCO’s continuous conduct of investigations into the matter was likely to prejudice a fair hearing and determination of the suit and in the process occasion a miscarriage of justice.
An affidavit in support of the substantive suit and deposed to by counsel for Mr Osafo-Maafo stated, among others, that the President’s directive to EOCO was a ruse in furtherance of the President’s agenda to divert attention and calculated at vindicating his prior public pronouncements of wrongdoing and impropriety by key members of the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.
It said the various public statements of the President, as well as other government functionaries, on the payment of money to Mr Woyome undoubtedly demonstrated the bias and the prejudice of the government and the Office of the Attorney-General, the authority with oversight responsibility for EOCO.
According to the affidavit in support, “Given the ample exhibition of bias and prejudice against key personalities in the erstwhile Kufuor administration, including the plaintiff, the defendant cannot be trusted to carry out any fair or impartial investigations into the relevant issues in controversy.”
It further pointed out that the President’s directive mandating EOCO to carry out the investigations in question was in utter bad faith and in gross contravention of the injunction imposed on all persons in positions of authority by the combined effect of articles 23 and 296 of the 1992 Constitution to act fairly, reasonably and in accordance with due process and in a manner devoid of prejudice, arbitrariness and capriciousness.
“Indeed, the conduct of the President and the Attorney-General so far flouts the fundamental principle of natural justice underpinning our legal system for a person not to be a judge in his own cause and for that matter ought to be curtailed by this honourable court,” the affidavit in support stated.
It added that the Constitution mandated only Parliament to investigate matters arising out of reports of the Auditor-General.
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