OB Amoah: Woyome’s money to me was not bribe

February 21, 2012 No Comments

Former Deputy Youth and Sports Minister OB Amoah has scoffed at allegations he was bribed by the embattled National Democratic Congress financier Alfred Agbesi Woyome.

The Enquiry Newspaper published a copy of a GHs75,000 cheque said to have been paid to Mr. Amoah by the NDC financier to support assertions the NPP man is neck deep in what has become the controversial judgment debt payment made to Alfred Woyome.

The NPP Member of Parliament for Aburi-Nsawam was only yesterday granted a ?20 million police inquiry bail after he was arrested Sunday evening over his role in the GHs51 million judgement debt paid to Alfred Woyome.

In what is his first public comments after his release from police custody, OB Amoah stated in a press conference he is incorruptible, a fact Alfred Woyome agrees and has testified publicly.

He admitted receiving monies from the embattled financier of the NDC but stated emphatically that the money was for payment for a land the NDC financier had bought in his constituency through him.

According to him, Alfred Woyome contacted a chief in his constituency to purchase 20 acres of land for a project but the chief was only ready to sell the land if only he the MP was involved.

“The first meeting that we had in the chief’s office he didn’t turn up, he sent his officers for that meeting. Later on the chief was even complaining that because I was involved he had been very lenient and magnanimous in offering that kind of price for the plots of land.”

“20 plots of land, as we speak he has dug about 12 bore holes on that property. I have asked for pictures to be taken for the whole world to see.

“If for any reason I pay money to one of the prominent chiefs of my constituency towards a project in that constituency I don’t think by any stretch of imagination anybody will say I am corrupt…..” he stated.

He said the payment was made in February, 2011, at a time when the issue of the Woyomegate scandal had not cropped up.

On the issue of willfully causing financial loss to the state- a charge leveled against him by prosecutors- Mr Amoah said he cannot be held responsible for asking contractors to go on site.

He said he as the deputy minister served under four substantive ministers and never once did he take a decision on his own.

He wondered how he would be hauled to court over an issue he is without blemish.

 

From: Myjoyonline.com

Politics