Appeal Court sets aside Judgement Debt Commission’s findings on Woyome

A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal presided by Justice Victor Osei has dismissed as unfair the findings of the Judgement Debt Commission in the controversial the GH¢51.2 million judgement debt wrongfully paid businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome.

The amount was paid Woyome by the erstwhile John Evans Atta Mills administration after claiming he helped Ghana raise funds to construct stadia for the hosting of the 2008 African Cup of Nations.

However, an Auditor General’s report released in 2010, held that the amount was paid illegally to him and subsequently, the Supreme Court in 2014 ordered Mr. Woyome to pay back the money, after Martin Amidu, a then private legal practitioner challenged the legality of the payments.

The Judgement Debt Commission in its findings with regard to the Woyome vrs A-G case, found that “either through inadvertence or pure mischief through connivance, both the Chief State Attorney, Samuel Nerquaye Tetteh, who was charged with the defence of the suit in the trial court, and the trial judge did not scrutinize the processes filed before them with judicious eyes. If the trial judge, particularly, had done so, he would not have granted the application for default judgement in the first place”.

But according to the panel, the Commission’s failure to invite Mr. Woyome to appear before it and testify breaches the rules of natural justice.

It thus ordered that the adverse findings contained in the Commission’s report should be expunged.