Alfred Kofi Agbesi Woyome(L) with Martin Amidu(R)
The embattled National Democratic Congress (NDC) financier, Alfred Kofi Agbesi Woyome, who is currently standing trial at an Accra Fast Track High Court for fraudulently receiving GH¢51.28 million judgment debt, was yesterday ordered by the Supreme Court to refund the money.
Mr. Martin ABK Amidu, former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, filed an application for the court to have a second look at some aspects of an earlier judgment which failed to call for a refund of the said amount paid to Woyome at the time when Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu was the Attorney General and Minister of Justice.
The Supreme Court review panel, presided over by Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, held that the contract was not constitutional and therefore invalid and ordered Woyome to refund the GH¢51.28 million.
According to the 11-member panel, the contract based on which Woyome made his claims was in contravention of Article 181(5) of the 1992 Constitution, noting that it (contract) required the approval of Parliament.
According to the panel, the consent judgment which the former Attorney General, Betty Mould-Iddrisu, made in favour of Woyome should not have been entertained at the High Court.
‘A declaration that the conduct of the then Honourable Attorney General, the 1 st Defendant/Respondent in this case in paying or ordering the payment by the Republic of Ghana of claims by the 3rd Respondent and Austro-lnvest, premised upon a purported foreign international financial engineering agreement arising out of the agreements dated 26th April 2006, and other international business agreements arising out of the said agreements with the Government of Ghana which were never laid before Parliament for approval, is inconsistent with and in contravention of Article 181(5) of the 1992 Constitution in terms of the interpretation already rendered by the ordinary bench and is accordingly declared null, void and without effect whatsoever,’ the court said.
Musah Ahmed and Osafo Boabeng, counsels for Woyome, were conspicuously absent and were represented by Ray Twumasi.
With the latest decision, Mr. Amidu has succeeded in securing judgement concerning the fraudulent payment of judgement debts paid to some companies and individuals who did not deserve a pesewa in the construction of stadia for the CAN 2008 soccer tournament held in Ghana.
By the judgement, Mr. Amidu had thrice knocked down Mr. Woyome and the companies he claims to be connected with – the Waterville ruling on June 14, 2013, where the company was expected to refund €25 million it received from the government following the court’s unanimous ruling that the said contract it entered into with the government for stadia construction for the CAN 2008 was unconstitutional; the Isofoton Ruling on June 21, 2013, where the court ordered Isofoton S.A. to refund the cedi equivalent of $325,472 it received from the government in March 2011 and yesterday’s Judicial Review Application ruling.
The court had, a couple of months ago, dismissed a preliminary objection by Osafo Boabeng in a Supreme Court review process that his client (Woyome) should not refund the GH¢51.28 million he (client) owed the state.
Mr. Boabeng had told the 11-member panel that the statement of case of the plaintiff, Martin Amidu, was not authenticated and so remained a draft, adding that the court could therefore not make reference to it.
Other Justices on the panel were Julius Ansah, Sophia Adinyera, Rose Owusu, Jones Dotse, Kwasi Anin Yeboah, Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, Vida Akoto-Bamfo, Sule Gbadegbe, A.K. Akamba and R. Benin.
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