Alfred Agbesi Woyome
Another attempt by embattled businessman Alfred
Agbesi Woyome to stop the state from selling his properties to offset his GH¢46
million debt has hit the snag, as the Supreme Court yesterday dismissed his application
for stay of execution.
He filed the application pleading with the
court to put on hold the sale of two of his mansions, claiming that he was
determined to pay the money if the execution of the court order was stayed.
His application emanated from the Supreme
Court’s order secured by the state allowing it to go ahead and sell the
identified properties to offset the GH¢51.2 million he fraudulently received as
judgement debt in 2011.
In July this year, his lawyers filed the
application to stay the execution of the order, with the promise that they were
committed to paying GH¢10 million and paying GH¢4 million every 90 days if the
execution order was suspended.
Woyome
Bankrupt
Moving the application yesterday, his lawyer,
Muda Ade Lawal, pleaded with the court to stay the execution, saying if the properties
were sold Woyome would go bankrupt.
He said if the execution was stayed, they were
willing to pay GH¢10 million immediately and pay GH¢4 million every nine
months.
He told the court that selling the properties
would put Woyome in a difficult situation, as he depends on the rent he gets
from the properties that are about to be auctioned by the state.
“If the execution of the judgment is levied on
us, we are sure to go bankrupt,” the counsel pleaded with the court.
Dame
Response
The application was, however, opposed by the Deputy
Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, who argued that if Woyome was willing to
pay the money, he would pay the GH¢10 million instead of filing an application
for stay of execution.
He said this is not the first time Woyome had
promised to pay GH¢4.5 million every three months but had refused to pay even a
penny.
He said taking into consideration the profit that
had accrued on the debt, it would take Woyome well over four years to finish
paying the money based on the payment plan proposal he made in his application.
Mr. Dame added that the state had laid hands on
‘certain’ properties of Woyome and was on the verge of selling them off while
others are being identified; he, therefore, asked the court to dismiss the
application.
Judges’
Concern
The panel of judges hearing the matter
expressed concern about the delay in paying the money since the order was given
by the court for Woyome to refund the money.
Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie recalled how other
lawyers came to the Supreme Court and pledged to have Woyome pay the money in instalment
but the commitment was not met saying “all we heard was that you went to a
different court.”
Justice Sule Gbadegbe told the lawyer that if
they want to pay the money in instalment, the way forward was not to challenge
the judgement but rather come before the court to explain that due to certain circumstances
they are unable to pay the money at a go.
Final
Ruling
The panel presided over by Justice Baffoe-Bonnie
and assisted by Justices Sule Gbadegbe, Alfred Benin, Samuel Marful-Sau and
Agnes Dordzie dismissed the application as ‘unmeritorious’.
The court said that was not the first time
Woyome had made the commitment to pay the money in instalment and the application
showed that it would take him more than four years to pay the entire amount.
The panel held that it had been more than five
years since the judgement for Woyome to refund the money with interest was
delivered and it would be unfair to further delay the payment.
New
Property
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has adopted the
forced sale value of GH¢4.485 million valuation of another mansion belonging to
Woyome located at Trasacco Valley in Accra.
This is the third property which has been valued
and is about to be auctioned to the public, bringing the total amount to be
realised from the sale of the mansions to GH¢27.885 million.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak
