Martin Amidu review adjourned

The Supreme Court has adjourned to March 18, the case in which former Attorney General Martin ABK Amidu is seeking a review of the judgement delivered by the court in respect of Alfred Agbesi Woyome, Waterville Holdings and Austro Invest Management.

The court on Friday June 14, 2013 ordered Waterville Holdings (BVI) Limited of P. O. Box 3444 Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands, to refund a whooping €25million paid by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government.

In his suit, the former AG, who has come to be known as ‘Citizen Vigilante’, had asked for 15 reliefs but the court granted five of those reliefs.

The reliefs granted included “a declaration that the Agreement entitled Contract for the Rehabilitation of a 40,000 seating capacity Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi, Ghana entered into on 26th April 2006 between the state and is an international business or economic transaction under Article 181(5) of the 1992 Constitution that could only have become operative and binding on the Government of Ghana after being laid before and approved by Parliament.”

Also, a declaration that the Agreement entitled “Contract for the Rehabilitation of a 40,000 seating capacity Ohene Djan Sports Stadium and the upgrading of the El-Wak Stadium in Accra, Ghana entered into on 26th April, 2006, between the Republic of Ghana and Waterville is an international business or economic transaction under Article 181(5) of the 1992 Constitution that could only have become operative and binding on the Government of Ghana after being laid before and approved by Parliament.”

The nine-member panel presided over by Justice Samuel Kofi Date-Bah, now retired, had held that the two agreements without being laid before and approved by Parliament was inconsistent with and in contravention of Article 181(5) of the 1992 Constitution and consequently null, void and without operative effect whatsoever.

?The court granted that the conduct of Waterville in making a claim for and securing payment through mediation on an alleged breach of contract of the said two Agreements between it (a wholly foreign company) and the Government of Ghana, when it knew that the agreements had not been approved, was inconsistent with and in contravention of the Constitution.

The case was scheduled for yesterday but it could not be heard because sources said the composition of the panel was still not complete and also the judges needed more time to assess the case.

Both Mr Amidu, who is the appellant/applicant, and Mr Woyome, one of the defendants in the initial suit, were in court.

Mr Amidu who normally represents himself in the case, and Osafo Buaben, counsel for Mr Woyome, were called to chambers and they returned with information on the adjournment.

Details of the review filed by Mr Amidu remained sketchy but DAILY GUIDE gathered that the former AG wanted the court to order Mr Woyome to also refund any amount paid to him in respect of the agreement which the court had already declared unconstitutional.

Apart from Justice Date-Bah, other justices who sat on the initial case were Julius Ansah, Sophia O. Adinyira, Rose C. Owusu, Jones Victor Dotse, Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, Kwasi Anin-Yeboah, Sulley Nasiru Gbadegbe and Vida Akoto-Bamfo.