New Patriotic Party (NPP) Deputy Communications Director, Samuel Awuku says President John Mills has committed perjury by feigning innocence of the scandalous Woyome judgment debt payment. Mr Awuku said the president had claimed he knew nothing about the payment of GHS58 million as judgment debt to businessman Alfred Agbeshi Woyome and that the claim was a grievous lie he told Ghanaians. President Atta Mills told editors and senior journalists at the Castle early on this year that he could not be so irresponsible to direct his Finance Minister to pay such a whopping amount of money to one person while the masses suffer due to inadequate infrastructure and basic amenities. “...when I know the plight of our people, when I know our people are crying for water, the basic necessities of life, how can I be so criminally-minded, so irresponsible to say give 58 million to one person,” the President quibbled. But the interim report of the Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO) – the investigative body directed by President Mills to examine the matter – indicated that Mills on two occasions asked that Mr Woyome should not be paid the amount he was claiming. A former Deputy Attorney General, Kwame Osei Prempeh, commenting on the EOCO report said President Mills had been exposed as a liar. On Peace FM’s news analysis programme Kokrokoo Tuesday, the NPP Deputy Communication Director re-echoed the stance of Kwame Osei Prempeh, asking how the President was able to stop the payments when he didn’t have the full facts of the case and thus was waiting on EOCO to present him with it. “The President is culpable,” Mr Awuku maintained, saying Mills was aware of the payments from the very start. He said the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) was trying to steal the people’s money through judgment debt payments to compensate the party’s financiers because they saw it to be the easiest way to defraud the state. However Mr Kwasi Pratt, who is Editor of the Insight newspaper, debunked Awuku’s assertion of the President feigning innocence on the matter. For him, there was nothing wrong with Mills’ ordering of the EOCO investigations since he only wanted the facts clearly stated. Pratt said there were conflicting information from all angles, including the opposition and auditor general’s office. He said the position of a negotiated settlement was at the core of the Woyome scandal and urged the President to ensure that anyone who contributed to the payment was held accountable irrespective of the person’s status – be it a minister or a servant. “The only way to bring this matter to a close is for the truth to emerge, and for the government to deal with it in an even-handed way; that is the only way, there is no other way… “So far I am satisfied with what the executive has done up till now... It should continue to the end,” Mr Pratt insisted, added, “it will be a major plus for him (Mills)” if he is able to get to the root of this scandal.