Rawlings’s comments were ‘irresponsible’ — Woyome's lawyer
The lead counsel for businessman Alfred Woyome has advised former President Jerry John Rawlings to maintain his reputation by refraining from making unsavoury comments about his client.
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According to Mr Ahmed Musah, the state was not a useless institution which would “leave thieves to roam about. You can’t call somebody a thief when you don’t have evidence”.
Following a High Court decision to acquit and discharge Mr Woyome in the Gh¢51 million judgement debt case, an obviously angry former President Rawlings accused the state prosecutors of helping Woyome to walk free.
“The extent of corruption I have been talking about. I just read that the thief called Woyome had been freed. Why because his accomplices [Betty Mould and one other person] who were in government were not produced in court for vital evidence to incriminate him,” he said.
Reacting to the comment on Citi FM's Eyewitness News, Woyome’s lawyer said it was rather unfortunate when respectable and responsible persons in the society spoke against court judgements.
He warned that it was wrong to call a person a thief when there was no evidence to prove such claims, and added that “there was no charge of stealing against him…but I don’t think that a very respectable person will call someone a thief when he has no evidence to buttress that”.
Mr Musah pointed out that former President Rawlings’s comment was “very defamatory of Mr Woyome” especially when it was coming from a former President.
“He [Rawlings] has so much respect in society and he shouldn’t dent it. I won’t be happy if I hear people call him a thief. In fact, I have defended him on many occasions when people made accusations against him. He shouldn’t do that.”
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He said they would take former President Rawlings’s comment as a “political statement, but it is not fair for him to say that.”
Asked whether his client, Mr Woyome, would consider suing the former President over the matter, lawyer Musah said, “It is a decision entirely within his [Woyome] right to say that we should take an action against him.”
He, however, advised Mr Woyome not to consider suing the former President because “I call it an irresponsible statement so there is no need for us to even go against him in court.”
“The court has spoken and everybody is supposed to obey the decision of the court. That is what the Constitution says… so who are you to sit on the fence and make a conclusion? Your conclusion is nothing but a mere statement which should be ignored.”
He also indicated that efforts being made by the Attorney General to appeal against the ruling on the case would be “an exercise in futility”.