Alfred Woyome
Embattled businessman, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, still owes Ghana a total of GH¢32,766,697, nine (9) years after he was ordered by the Supreme Court to pay a judgement debt of GH¢51,283,480.59 to the state for no work done in 2011.
Documents obtained by Accra-based TV3 from the Office of the Attorney General indicate that the state has only been able to recoup GH¢18,516,801,00, forming less than half of the total amount since the Supreme Court in July 2014 ordered Mr. Woyome to return the money to the state.
The monies paid to the state so far are made up of GH¢13,850,000 derived from the sale of two properties of Mr. Woyome, GH¢4.5 million he himself paid to the state in two installments and another GH¢166,801 recouped from his bank accounts which were garnisheed by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court on June 14, 2013 ordered Waterville Holdings (BVI) Ltd to refund all monies paid to it by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government as judgment debt over the termination of an ‘illegally’ awarded contract for rehabilitation works on the Accra Sports Stadium for the AFCON 2008 hosted by Ghana.
The Office of the AG under the John Mahama administration was, however, reluctant to retrieve the debt and subsequently delayed the processes of seeking direction from the court regarding the enforcement of the orders.
Woyome then instituted an action at the International Court of Arbitration against the Government of Ghana, challenging the decision of the Supreme Court for his company to refund the money.
Property Sale
The Supreme Court, presided over by a single judge, Justice Alfred A. Benin, in July 2019, ordered the state to go ahead and sell four properties of Woyome to defray the money he fraudulently took from the state when the NDC was in power.
This was after the court found that Woyome had colluded with the defunct UT Bank to hide the properties from the state.
The court, on July 25, 2020, ordered the state to open a 21-day auction notice and on August 8, the notice was published in the state-owned Daily Graphic.
Ahead of the auction, Woyome filed an application at the Supreme Court seeking to vary the terms of the order to enable him to use his property he said were in the Volta Region to replace his mansions and other properties the court had ordered that they should be sold.
Woyome, who is not a lawyer, had to move his own application on Tuesday because his counsel was not in court. The application was dismissed.
He had previously filed countless number of applications seeking to halt government’s efforts to retrieve the money.
Two of the mansions located at Trassaco Valley, Accra, which is Ghana’s most expensive residential area, are part of the properties which the Supreme Court ordered should be auctioned in order for the state to recoup all the money plus interest that the NDC government paid him in 2011.
He had gone to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights based in Arusha, Tanzania on two separate occasions seeking to set aside the decision of the Supreme Court, but failed on both occasions.
The African Court in June 2019 dismissed an application by Woyome, who was claiming the violation of his right to non-discrimination, equal protection before the law and his right to be heard by an impartial tribunal.
Auction Sale
Auction documents sighted by DAILY GUIDE in 2020 showed one of Mr. Woyome’s mansions on Plot No. 259 Trassaco Valley Phase II was auctioned for GH¢5,500,000 whilst the other on Plot No. 260 Trassaco Valley Phase II was sold for GH¢8,350,000.
They were all bought by the National Security as endorsed by the Supreme Court when the auctioneer reported to the court through the Attorney General about the difficulty in disposing off the properties due to the political strings attached to the case.
The Office of the Attorney General is following leads to retrieve the outstanding debt of GH¢32,766,697 Mr. Woyome still owes the state.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak