Court Rejects Woyome Again!

A five-member Supreme Court panel has refused a stay of execution application from businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome on the auctioning of his properties by the state to offset his debts.

Mr. Woyome through his lawyer Luda Addey Lawal moved the motion with an assurance to pay GHc10 million if the motion was granted.

In a ruling, the court held that Woyome had made similar promises in the past to pay the money in installment but had failed to fulfill such promises.

The court was of the view that given such luxury to Woyome would not be fair since the order for him to pay the money was given in 2014.

The other Justices on the panel were Justices Sule Gbadegbe, Anthony A Benin, Samuel Marful- Sau and Agnes Dordzi

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 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.