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The businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome represented himself in the Supreme Court on Tuesday morning to argue his case against the auction of his properties destined to compensate the ¢ 46 million GH that he owes to the state.
Dressed in a white suit, the businessman stood before a five-member panel, chaired by Chief Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah, to make his introductions, Graphic Online’s Emmanuel Ebo Hawkson, who was at the reports. of the courtroom.
When asked by the Chief Justice why he (Woyome) was not represented by a lawyer, Woyome replied that he had difficulties in hiring the services of a lawyer because “everyone felt humiliated in the case.”
According to him, given the circumstances and the urgency of the request, he decided to present and argue the claim himself.
Request
Making his case, Graphic Online’s Ebo Hawkson reported that Woyome said the request was in response to the order for his properties, which include two houses to be auctioned.
According to him, he had insisted that the state not sell the properties, but instead take over a piece of land he owned that was worth more than $ 15 million.
He said that all efforts to achieve this had proved futile because the Attorney General (AG) had refused to speak to him.
Views from the bench
At the time, one of the panelists, Judge Getrude Torkorno, told Mr. Woyome that he did not need AG’s involvement to sell the land.
Another member, Judge Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, also told the businessman that the state does not need the land but the money.
He also reminded Mr. Woyome that he (Woyome) had had many opportunities to pay off his debt to the state and it was not now that the properties had already been auctioned that he would come in and say that he had land that could pay the debt.
Judge Nene Amegatcher also told Mr. Woyome that his request was not supported by any rules or court procedures.
Subsequently, the court dismissed the request as lacking merit and constituting an abuse of the judicial process.
Background
The Supreme Court, on July 29, 2014, ordered Mr. Woyome to reimburse GH ¢ 51.2 million to the state on the grounds that he obtained the money from unconstitutional and invalid contracts between the state and Waterville Holdings Limited in 2006 for the construction of stadiums for CAN 2008.
The court found that the contracts under which Mr. Woyome made and received the lawsuit were in contravention of section 181 (5) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, which required such contracts to be submitted and approved by Parliament.
The case that led to the Supreme Court decision was initiated by Mr. Martin Amidu, the current Special Prosecutor, in his capacity as a citizen of Ghana.
On March 1, 2016, Woyome asked the court to give him three years to return the money, but the court refused to grant his wish.
However, it repaid GH ¢ 4 million in November 2016 and an additional GH ¢ 600,000 and agreed to pay the outstanding balance in quarterly installments of GH ¢ 5 million as of April 1, 2017.
That did not materialize, after the businessman started a litany of court cases in the Supreme Court challenging the decision that he pay the money or steps to execute the sentence, which were rejected.
In addition to fighting his cases in the country, Mr. Woyome also sought help from the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) based in Paris, France, and the African Court of Justice, based in Arusha. , Tanzania.
In August 2017, the ICC dismissed his case on the grounds that it had not properly invoked its jurisdiction.
His case in the African Court of Justice was also dismissed in June this year.
Propierties sell
The state, in its attempt to seize the businessman’s properties, faced certain obstacles, including the defunct UT Bank’s claim that some of the properties belonged to the bank.
On June 27, 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that the properties were, indeed, Woyome’s and ordered their sale to pay off the debt it owed to the state.
Assets to be sold include two mansions in Trassaco Estate, a house in Kpehe, an Anator Holdings office complex, a residential building in Abelemkpe and a stone quarry, including its plants and equipment.
The court, with Judge Benin as the sole judge, had held that the properties belonged to Mr. Woyome and that UT Bank’s claim that the businessman had sold the two houses in Trassaco Estate to him was a sham.
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