2 Woyome Houses Sell For 11 Million

The Supreme Court in a unanimous decision yesterday gave the state the green light to sell two properties belonging to under fire businessman, Alfred Agbeshi Woyome, at a minimum value of GH¢11.7 million.

The residential facilities located in Kpehe and Trassaco Valley both suburbs of Accra were pegged at a minimum GH¢ 3.4 million and GH¢8.3 million respectively.

The five member panel of Justices presided over by Justice Baffoe Bonnie held that a third property which is yet to be valued must be done by the Lands Valuation Board and the report submitted to the Court by August 30.

Backing

The Court’s order paves the way for the auctioning of the properties in line with the decision by the court giving the state the permission to sell Mr. Woyome’s properties to offset part of the GH¢47 million debt owed the state.

The court in a June 27 ruling by Justice A. A Benin this year ordered the state to sell off Woyome’s houses to pay the state his debt after an attempt to halt the sale.

Mr. Woyome had argued in court through his legal counsel, the properties did not belong to him but to the receiver of the defunct UT Bank.

The receiver claimed it owns the properties due to the businessman’s failure to repay a loan, a position the state vehemently disagrees with.

But the court in its ruling called the purported sale of the properties to the receiver of the defunct bank a “sham” and an attempt to prevent the state from selling those properties.

Spurred on by the ruling, the Attorney-General’s office filed an application, urging the court to adopt GH¢14.9 million as the minimum value for three properties.

 

The Lawyers for the businessman, however, filed a response contesting the values provided by the Land’s Commission.

Deputy Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, however urged the Court to adopt the figures submitted by the businessman saying they are not entirely different from what the Lands Commission had submitted.

Other Judges

But lawyers for the businessman had not submitted values for the third property leaving the Supreme Court to order that it is valued once again.

Other judges on the panesl were Jutuces Sulley Gbadegbe; A. A Benin; Marful Siaw and Agness Dodzie.

Hearing continues on October 16.

Background

The Supreme Court, on July 29, 2014, ordered Mr. Woyome to refund GH¢51.2 million to the State on the grounds that he had got the money out of unconstitutional and invalid contracts between the State and Waterville Holdings Limited in 2006 for the construction of stadia for  the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, which Ghana hosted.

The court held that the contracts upon which Mr Woyome made and received the claim were in contravention of Article 181 (5) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, which required such contracts to be laid before and approved by Parliament.

On March 1, 2016, Mr Woyome prayed the court to give him three years to pay back the money but the court declined to grant his wish.

Refund

He, however, refunded GH¢4 million in November 2016 and promised to pay the outstanding balance in quarterly instalments of GH¢5 million, commencing April 1, 2017.

That did not materialize after the businessman had initiated a litany of legal cases at the Supreme Court to support his case, which were all dismissed.

 

Story By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson