Court orders sale of Woyome’s chattels to pay debt

The Supreme Court of Ghana has ordered the sale of three properties belonging to businessman, Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome in quest to pay the GH¢51.2 million judgement debt paid to him by the State.

The three properties under contention are two residential properties at Trasacco in Accra and a quarry located in the Eastern Region.

According to the court, a claim by the now-defunct UT Bank that Mr Woyome used two of his houses at Trassaco as collateral for a loan could not be proven.

The court also ruled that Mr Woyome’s quarry was not used as collateral as he and the bank had claimed.

In his judgement, Justice Benin said he has concluded that the claim by UT Bank that Mr. Woyome used the two buildings at Trasacco as collateral for a loan is false as they did not provide any credible evidence to substantiate their claim.

On the issue of the office complex of Anator Holdings, the Court held that all evidence point to the fact that they are indeed owned by Mr Woyome and not anyone else. Subsequently, all the properties identified by the State are to be sold in satisfaction of the judgement debt owed the State.

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 got the money out of unconstitutional and invalid contracts between the State and Waterville Holdings Limited in 2006 for the construction of stadia for CAN 2008.

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 requires 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.

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

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

In addition to fighting his cases in the country, Mr Woyome sought relief from the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), based in Paris, France, and the African Court of Justice, based in Arusha, Tanzania.

In August 2017, the ICC threw out his case, on the basis that he had failed to properly invoke its jurisdiction. His case at the African Court of Justice is yet to be determined.