February 26

WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH
DAILY HERITAGE MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2018
To accomplish great things, we
must not only act, but also dream,
not only plan, but also believe.
GYEEDA ROT:
—Anatole France
Jailed Assibit to
appeal sentence
BY MUNTALLA INUSAH
muntalla.inusah@dailyheritage.com.gh
THE FORMER National
Coordinator
of the Ghana
Youth Employment
and Entrepreneurial
Development
Agency ‘GYEEDA’, Mr Abuga
Pele and businessman, Philip
Akpeena Assibit have been sentenced
to share 18 years jail term
for defrauding the State.
Mr Assibit, who was the Project
Coordinator of Goodwill International
Group and
Management Development and
Productivity Institute, was sentenced
to 12 years for defrauding
the State by false pretense and
three years for six counts of dishonestly
causing financial loss to
public property. Both are to run
concurrently, so he will serve the
highest which is 12 years.
Mr Pele, a former Member of
Parliament (MP) for Chiana-Paga
in the Upper East Region who
was charged with two counts of
abetment to wit defrauding by
false pretense was handed six
years for abatement and four
years for five counts of willfully
causing financial loss to the State.
Both are to run concurrently,
so he will serve the highest which
is six years.
Court’s considerations
The Financial and Economic
Division of the High Court,
presided by Mrs Afia Serwah
Asare- Botwe, said it took into
consideration the fact that the accused
persons when given the
opportunity to plea for mitigation
were “remorseless and unrepentant.”
It also said, the convicts
though were first time offenders,
• Abuga Pele to spend
six years in prison
were not young people, but elderly
statesmen who should not
have conspired to loot the State
and therefore ought to face punitive
measures that would deter
others.
The 52-page judgement ordered
the State to recover from
the convicted persons any property
valued at $1.9 million equivalent
to GH¢ 3.3 million.
We’ll appeal
But, lawyers of the convict
have indicated their willingness
to file a notice of appeal as early
as this week. Lawyer for Mr Assibit,
especially, Kweku Paintsil,
told the DAILY HERITAGE
that he had been instructed by
his client to appeal the conviction
and also apply for bail,
adding that the State which
had the burden of proving
its case was selective
in presenting evidence to
the Financial Court.
“The prosecution was
specifically accused not
only by one witness but
by two or three witnesses
of deliberately hiding evidence
from the court. If the
prosecution has a good case
why withhold evidence from the
court?” he asked rhetorically.
According to him, even the
judge conceded that proceedings
were adjourned to allow the
lawyers of the accused and the
state to negotiate a plea bargain,
but they were not offered that
opportunity.
•Philip Akpeena
Assibit
•Abuga Pele
“You cannot ask a lawyer to confer
with the client in the glare of
the court and come out with anything
reasonable in five minutes,"
he expressed disappointment. It
is as good as admitting the conviction.
Even if we decided
to refund the entire
amount, the judge will still
go ahead to sentence
them.”
No contract
In her 52-paged judgement,
the court said, a purported
Memorandum of
Understanding signed between
then National Youth Employment
Programme and the then
Chief Executive Officer of
Goodwill International Group
could not be described as a contract
of consultancy service.
The court said the document
presented as evidence of work
done by Mr Assibit had gaps in it
and looked unfinished with references
made from the European
Union as if Ghana was in Europe.
Touching on whether Mr Assibit
had secured 65 million dollars
funding from the World
Bank as he claimed for which
reason he demanded to be paid
GH¢ 826 million, the court said
per all documents before it from
the World Bank, no such money
was secured as at September
2011 when Mr Assibit insisted he
had secured that amount.
The court also found as false
his claim that, he Assibit had recruited
250 youth and prepared
an exit plan as ordered by World
Bank to organise tracer studies.
On whether his actions
amounted to defrauding (had intent),
the court found that the
Prosecution proved the counts of
defrauding by false pretence
against Mr Assibit; he was accordingly
convicted.
Abuga Pele
After citing many authorities
on whether he (Pele) abetted the
crime of defrauding by false pretence,
the court said Prosecution
had proved his guilty of two
counts of abetting to commit
crime.
On whether there was an intention
to willfully cause financial
loss to the State, the court said it
was convinced and had no doubt
that GH¢ 3.3 million had been
lost by the State.
The court, thus, found Abuga
Pele guilty of willfully causing financial
loss to the State. The
court found the former GY-
EEDA coordinator guilty of 13
counts ranging from abetting to
committing crime of willfully
causing financial loss to the State.