Unravelling the Woyome saga – POLICE GRILL WATERVILLE MD

Front Page: Daily Graphic, March 3, 2012 Story: Albert K. Salia INVESTIGATIONS into the GH¢51.2 million judgement debt paid to a businessman, Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome, were taken to another level when the Managing Director of Waterville Ghana, Mr Andreas M. Orlandi, was grilled by the police for four hours yesterday. The interrogation, conducted at the Headquarters of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, started at 8:30 a.m. and ended at 12:30 p.m. Mr Orlandi is expected to return to meet the investigative panel next week to provide documents in respect of some of the issues raised in connection with the payment. After studying the yet-to-be-submitted documents, the panel will arrange a sort of cross-examination of the witnesses who have so far appeared before the investigative panel. The Daily Graphic was told by sources at the CID Headquarters that the investigative panel wanted to know if, indeed, Waterville had a contract with the government. Without giving details and the answers provided by Mr Orlandi, the sources said the panel sought to know whether or not the contract had, indeed, been abrogated, if there was one. The panel also sought to know why and how the contract had been abrogated and the legal consequences, not only for the state but also any other interested party. Mr Orlandi was also questioned on the relationship between Waterville and Mr Woyome. “Members of the panel are currently reviewing the documents and statements Mr Orlandi made when he appeared before the panel yesterday. He had also been told to produce some documents he forgot to bring along,” the sources said. Mr Orlandi is the eighth person to be interrogated by the CID investigative panel, led by its Director-General, Commissioner of Police (COP) Mr Prosper Agblor. Besides the principal actor in the brouhaha, Mr Woyome, others who have appeared before the panel include a former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu; a former Minister of Education and Sports, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, under whose tenure the alleged contract between the government and Waterville was entered into and abrogated, and his deputy, Mr Osei Bonsu Amoah. The rest are a Chief State Attorney, Samuel Nerquaye-Tetteh; the Director of Legal Services at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Paul Asimenu, and Gifty Nerquaye-Tetteh, Nerquaye-Tetteh’s wife, into whose account Woyome allegedly deposited GH¢400,000. They are currently standing trial alongside Woyome at the Financial Division of the Fast Track High Court. Nerquaye-Tetteh has been charged with two counts of conspiracy and corruption of public officer, while his wife, Gifty, and Asimenu, have been charged with a count each of abetment of crime. They are all currently on court bail and are to reappear before the court on March 5, 2012.