Pay Your Debt, Get Your Properties Back – CJ tells Woyome

A five-member panel of the Supreme Court presided over by Chief Justice Anin Yeboah has adjourned to June 24, 2020, the case in which the State is seeking leave to acquire the properties owned by businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome.

The motion for leave of the court by the State is premised on auctioneers’ notice that it was unable to auction the properties because buyers fear the properties could be returned to him by a future government.

In court on yesterday, when the motion for leave for the acquisition was called, Mr Woyome’s intention to challenge the application was blocked by the CJ.

The CJ said his lawyer had written informing the court that he was unwell and asked for June 8, to be present in court.

But Mr Woyome, who was in court for the first time this year, wanted to address the court on the matter.

However, the CJ said if he had anything to tell the court, he should inform his lawyer.

“You can tell your lawyer what you want to tell us,” the CJ advised him, adding that, “if you have money, go and pay, pay and get your properties back,”

The case has been adjourned to June 24, for the State to move its motion.

Background

It has emerged that Woyome’s properties ordered by the Supreme Court’s to be sold has still not been sold.

This is because potential buyers are reportedly afraid to purchase the properties because they feel those properties may be restored to Mr Woyome in the future.

Minister of National Security, Albert Kan-Dapaah, made this known in a letter dated March 4, 2020, and addressed to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General.

The letter made reference to the Supreme Court’s order to have the properties of Mr. Woyome auctioned to settle judgment debt.

It would be recalled that in July 2019, after three years of legal joggling over the true ownership of properties in the case involving the businessman and National Democratic Congress bankroller, Mr Woyome, the Supreme Court ordered the auctioning of the assets to defray the GH¢47.2 million debt he owes the State.

Assets in question include two mansions at Trassaco Estate, a house at Kpehe where he resides, an office complex of Anator Holdings, residential building at Abelemkpe and a stone quarry in the Eastern Region including its plants and equipment.

The Supreme Court at the time, with Justice A. A. Bennin serving as the sole judge held that the properties belonged to Woyome.

The Court also said that the claim by the defunct UT Bank that Mr. Woyome sold two houses at Trassaco Estate to the bank to defray his debt was a sham.

Again, the court held that Woyome’s quarry was not used as collateral, as he and the bank claimed.

Costs of GH¢60,000 was awarded against UT Bank and Woyome by the Court in 2019.

But the National Security Minister bemoaned in his letter that “the auctioneer tasked with the auctioning the properties has indicated his inability to successfully execute the task because potential buyers are afraid amongst other reasons that the properties maybe restored to Mr. Woyome by the State in the future.”

“In view of the above, it has been decided that the properties be surrendered to the State to obviate the need for an auction,” the letter added.