Mr. David Annan, a lawyer for businessman and National Democratic Congress financier, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, says he is confident his client will keep the judgment debt awarded him.
He is convinced “that judgment, to all intents and purposes, is fixed in stone” because it is a consent judgment which cannot be negotiated.
Contrary to expectations that the Attorney General had found renewed energy to pursue a writ it filed seven months ago and defend the public purse in challenging the quantum of money claimed by Alfred Woyome, the A-G failed to do so today.
The AG paid Woyome GHS42 million in disregard of the grant of its own prayer to pay only GHS17 million pending the final determination of the present suit.
The money was in respect of claimed abrogation of a contract to refurbish stadia for the CAN 2008.
The AG is seeking to set aside terms of settlement it had earlier signed saying it made a mistake in calculating the quantum.
But David Annan, one of the lawyers for Mr. Woyome, thinks the AG is merely seeking to delay his client a second round victory to enable him enjoy the fruits of the judgment without any hindrance.
David Annan told Joy FM that while a consent judgment cannot be negotiated except on grounds of mistake or fraud, “it is very difficult to argue those grounds because it normally has to be, if it’s a mistake, mutual mistake, that is by both parties, not a unilateral mistake. They don’t accept unilateral mistake because the of the principle of what we say in Latin Non_est_factum, that means that it is your deed, once you are literate and you can read and write and you append your signature to any document you are bound by the terms of the of it…”
The case for the past fortnight been the subject of heated debates between government supporters and spokespersons against others in the opposition New Patriotic Party.
President J.E.A. Mills has ordered an investigation into the circumstances leading to the award of the amount as compensation as well as other judgement debts awarded since his administration took office.