A High Court has convicted a former top government official, Abuga Pele and a private service provider, Philip Assibit, after they were found guilty of 19 counts including dishonestly causing financial loss to the state.
Abuga Pele has subsequently been jailed for six years while his counterpart, Philip Assibit who was CEO of Goodwill International Ghana (GIG) was found guilty of six of the 19 counts he faced including defrauding by false pretence has also been jailed for 12 years.
The Court was satisfied that the prosecution had proved 13 of the 19 counts Abuga Pele faced ranging from aiding and abetting crime to willfully causing financial loss to the state.
Before sentencing, the legal counsel for Phillip Assibit asked for not more than six months. The lawyer, Kwaku Paintsil, explained the prisons are full and his client is a chief and an entrepreneur who has an “unnumbered children”
On his part, Abuga Pele’s legal counsel Abu Juan also asked for not more than six months explained his client is a former Member of Parliament and was actually an MP when the trial started.
They believe he lost his parliamentary primaries as a result of this case and that he has a family.
Background
Abuga Pele and Philip Akpeena Assibit, stood trial for committing acts that led to the loss of GH¢4.1 million to the state.
Assibit pleaded not guilty to six counts of defrauding by false pretence and six counts of dishonestly causing loss to public property, while Pele also pleaded not guilty to five counts of willfully causing financial loss to the state, abetment of crime and intentionally misapplying public property.
The prosecution claimed that Pele, who was the National Coordinator of the agency when it was known as National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), entered into a contract with Assibit to engage in activities which did not inure to the benefit of the state.
The facts of the case, per the prosecution, are that in 2010, Pele entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the GIG, represented by Assibit, without any “recourse to the then sector Minister of Youth and Sports, Akua Sena Dansua, or the Attorney General’’.
Between May 2011 and May 2012, the prosecution said, Assibit made a number of payment claims for consultancy services ranging from “the provision of exit programmes for the NYEP to the provision of financial engineering services’’.
Assibit, the prosecution said, claimed his services led to the NYEP securing a World Bank facility of $65 million and also helped the agency to recruit 250 youth to support the implementation of what was known as the Youth Enterprises Development Programme.
The prosecution added that in August 2012, investigations revealed that Assibit was paid an additional “GH¢835,000 under the guise of what was referred to as tracer studies for the World Bank.”
Abuga Pele had always stated that he was only used as scapegoat by the previous NDC government, whiles the real culprits were made to walk free.
GYEEDA Ruling update: Abuga Pele jailed 6 years
-