Alfred Agbesi Woyome, the businessman at the centre of the GH¢51 million Waterville judgment debt case has hit out at the General Legal Council over the expulsion of a senior state attorney, Samuel Nerquaye-Tetteh following the transfer of GH¢400,000 into his wife’s bank account.
Speaking to journalists on Friday, February 16, Mr Woyome debunked assertions that he had bribed the Senior State Attorney.
“I want you to understand one thing that I have been law-abiding in this country. I’ve never given a bribe or taken a bribe, because even I’ve never been in a government position neither have I benefited from any government money whatsoever in any government. My brief stake in the government of Atta Mills as a board chairman and also as appointment committee member. Even fuel coupons I never accepted.”
He maintained that Mr Nerquaye-Tetteh never handled his file to begin with.
“We have this judgement that bars anybody that says that Alfred Woyome was illegally paid. Bars anybody that says that Nerquaye-Tetteh or anybody that was involved in this transaction from Kufuor’s time to the NDC’s time has done something wrong.
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“On what basis is the Attorney General still tarnishing the image of a person for all these years. If you read deeply, you’ll realise that Mr Nerquaye-Tetteh never handled my file. The only time Nerquaye-Tetteh was sent to court was when there was somebody out and he went to deputize and even that one it was after the government negotiation.
“Every payment made was by court order and the decision was taken in the highest arm of government from the castle.
“Every letter and every decision was copied to the then President, Chief of Staff and other people. How then can just a Chief State Attorney take a decision; in some of the meetings he was not even there,” he further explained.
Background
The GLC, in a notice dated January 31, 2024, and signed by the Judicial Secretary, Justice Cynthia Pamela Koranteng, revoked the license of Mr. Nerquaye-Tetteh as a lawyer.
This means that Mr. Nerquaye-Tetteh can never practice as a lawyer again in Ghana after the Disciplinary Committee of the GLC, the regulatory body of the legal profession, found him guilty of professional misconduct under Rule 2(2) of the Legal Profession (Professional Conduct and Etiquette) Rules, 1969 (L.I. 613).
The GLC stated that Mr. Nerquaye-Tetteh personally oversaw the direct transfer of GH¢400,000 from Mr. Woyome to his wife’s bank account while representing the state in a lawsuit filed by Woyome in 2011.
According to the GLC, Mr. Nerquaye-Tetteh was unable to provide a plausible rationale for the GH¢400,000 that Mr. Woyome had sent into his wife’s bank account.
According to the GLC, the conduct of Mr Nerquaye-Tetteh had adversely affected “the “dignity and high standing of the legal profession.”
“That, he, as a lawyer and a Chief State Attorney, having acted as counsel for the State in the case, Alfred Agbesi Woyome vrs. Attorney General & Anor had an amount of Four Hundred Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢400,000.00) transferred directly from Mr Alfred Woyome into the bank account of his wife, Mrs. Gifty Nerquaye-Tetteh without any reasonable explanation; a conduct or act that adversely affects the dignity and high standing of the legal profession.
“SAMUEL NERQUAYE-TETTEH shall not hold himself out as a lawyer or attend chambers or render or purport to render any professional legal services to the public. The practicing licence of Samuel Nerquaye-Tetteh is hereby withdrawn forthwith,” the notice added.