Woyome to spend weekend in custody?

Alfred Woyome Several hours after he was seized from his car Friday and bundled into a police operations vehicle and taken to the headquarters of the Ghana Police Service, businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome appears set to spend the weekend in the custody of the police. News of his arrest sent scores of his supporters and others said to be supporters of the ruling National Democratic Congress, NDC, to the police command center, but their presence and subsequent confrontation with the police led to the arrest of five of the supporters. Woyome, thought to be a financier of the NDC, was also visited by party chairman, Dr. Kwabena Adjei and propaganda secretary, Richard Quashigah. Neither of the two was available for comment. Late into the night, however, Woyome was still being held by the police ostensibly to be processed for court on Monday on charges said to border on ‘defrauding by false presentences’. The police are known to keep suspects they arrest on Friday’s throughout the weekend and sent to court on Monday, with several condemnation of the practice going unheeded. Woyome’s arrest comes on the heels of the interim report of the Economic and Organised Crimes Office following its probe into the controversial GHS51 million judgment debt paid him. Legal watchers claim he and his suspected collaborators could face over a dozen criminal charges. Current and former public officials suspected to have neglected to do due diligence or who were complicit could also face a more serious charge of willfully causing financial loss to the state.