Woyome Objection Dismissed

Alfred Agbesi Woyome
The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed a preliminary objection by Osafo Boabeng, counsel for National Democratic Congress (NDC) bankroller and businessman, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, in a review praying the court to order a refund of the GH¢51.28 million allegedly owed the State by Woyome through an alleged fraudulent judgment debt paid to him.

Martin Alimisi Amidu, former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, filed the application for the court to take a second look at some aspects of an earlier judgment in which it declined to call for a refund of the said amount, which Amidu believed should be returned to the state.

Osafo Boabeng prayed the court to give him a few days to file their statement of case after an initial preliminary objection was dismissed by the court, presided over by the Chief Justice, Mrs. Georgina Theodora Wood.

Earlier, Woyome’s counsel had told the eleven-member panel of Supreme Court judges that the statement of case of the plaintiff, Amidu, was not authenticated and so remained a draft and the court could therefore not make reference to it.

According to Boabeng, the rules of procedure indicated that to apply for a review, a statement of case is distinct and does not form part of an affidavit. However, the judges, who did not agree with him, asked if a verifying affidavit was sworn to by the former Attorney-General (A-G), to which counsel for Woyome answered in the affirmative.

The case was dismissed by the Chief Justice after which Mr. Boabeng prayed for a few days to file all the statements of case.

In a related case of review filed by the former A-G – for the court to reconsider its decision not to hold the current A-G and the country representative of Isofoton S.A. an energy company, to refund $325,472 which he believed the company owes the State – Amidu complained that the company’s representative was out of time.

This was because they should have filed the necessary documents three months ago.

This prompted Mr. Martin Amidu to tell the court that since he was acting in the public interest, he did not wish to deny any body the opportunity to present their case to the court and said he was willing for Carl Adongo, counsel for Anane Adjei, representative of Isofoton, to correct certain errors on their statement of case for the matter to continue.

Other judges in the case are Justices Julius Ansah, Sophia Adinyera, Rose Owusu, Jones Dotse, Anin Yeboah, Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, Vida Akoto-Bamfo, Sule Gbadegbe, A.K. Akamba and R. Benin.

The case has been adjourned to May 20, 2014.
By Fidelia Achama