Former National Coordinator of the now-defunct Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA), Abuga Pele, has been pardoned by President Akufo-Addo.
The former Member of Parliament for the Chiana Paga constituency was pardoned on health grounds.
President Akufo-Addo is said to have communicated his decision to the Prison Service who subsequently informed the family of the embattled former MP.
Mr. Pele was admitted at the Nsawam Prisons Hospital after tasking ill.
In February 2018, Mr. Pele was sentenced alongside the Chief Executive Officer of Goodwill International Group, Philip Assibit, to a combined jail term of 18 years.
Abuga Pele was given a four and six-year sentence which was expected to run concurrently.
Assibit on his part was handed a 12 and four years on different counts.
Background
The Financial and Economic Crimes Division of the Accra High Court, presided over by Mrs Justice Afia Serwaa Asare-Botwe, in 2918/found Assibit guilty of putting in false claims that he had secured a $65-million World Bank funding for the creation of one million jobs for the youth, resulting in the government parting with GH¢4.1 million.
Pele was also found guilty of acting in a manner that resulted in the loss of the amount to the state.
He was handed a lower sentence because there “was no evidence that he benefited from the proceeds of the crime.’’
The court further ordered the state to seize the property of Assibit to recover the amount that it had lost.
By:/Rainbowradioonline.com