Donkomi Ooo Donkomi… Woyome Houses For Sale!

The Attorney-General is back to the Supreme Court with a motion to determine the reserve prices for three earmarked residential properties of businessman, Alfred Agebsi Woyome to be sold by public auction to defray the GH¢47.2 million debt he owes the state.

This include the house where he currently lives at New Town in Accra.

Others are apartments situated on plot numbers 260, Almeri Court, Trasaco Valley; 259, Almeri Court, Trasaco Valley, and anothee on house number 327/7 Concam Crescent at Kpehe, Accra.

Motion

Per the motion filed at the Supreme Court, a copy of which has been sighted by the paper, the said houses are to be sold for forced sale prices of GH¢7,769,000; GH¢4,485,000 and GH¢2,703,000 respectively.

This follows the court’s ruling by Justice A. A Benin on June 27 this year ordering the state to sell off Woyome’s houses to pay the state his debt after an attempt to halt the sale.

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.

Deputy Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, weeks after the ruling is back to the apex court for the green light to sell off the properties.

The motion, titled “Application for Determination of Reserve Price” disclosed that
“the Lands Commission on July 9, 2019 conducted a revaluation of the properties stating current market values and forced sale values of the properties.”

The affidavit in support of the notion further stated “I respectfully pray that this honourable court adopts as the reserve price for a sale by public auction, the forced sale values of the properties described in the preceding paragraphs.”

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.

 

By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson