Supreme Court defers ruling on Woyome’s GH¢20m properties to June 27

Single Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Alfred Benin, has deferred ruling on the State’s application seeking an order of the Court to sell several properties it has identified as belonging to the embattled businessman and judgement debtor, Alfred Woyome.

The properties are two executive buildings located at Trassaco in Accra, the office complex of Anator Holdings at East Legon , a company owned by Mr. Woyome, two residential buildings at New Town and Abelempke, both suburbs in Accra as well as a mining quarry owned by the judgement debtor in the Eastern Region of Ghana.

The State identified the properties owned by Mr. Woyome which are estimated at GHc 20 million that it believes could prove vital in retrieving the GH¢ 51.2 million judgement debt he received from the State unlawfully.

However, receivers of non-existing UT Bank claimed that some of the properties identified by the State are theirs. It was the claim of lawyers of the defunct UT bank that Woyome, used the said properties as collateral for loans at the bank which he failed to pay back. Ownership of the properties as a result of the failure to pay back the loans transferred to UT bank automatically.

The State represented by the Deputy Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, had argued that The claim of UT Bank was the product of collusion between Woyome and the Bank. Further, the State argued that there is no evidence to show that the said properties were validly used as collateral by Woyome to secure loans from UT bank. The properties, the State maintained are owned by the embattled businessman, and therefore, prayed the Court to declare same as true to pave way for the State to sell them.

The Apex Court was expected to deliver its judgment today, the 13th May 2019. However, after meeting with all the parties involved in the case in chambers, enquiries by journalists at the registry of the Court revealed that judgement on the UT Bank side of the case according to the judge is ready but that of the Anator Holdings is not ready. The Presiding Judge therefore instructed that the parties should return to Court on the 27th June 2019 for a joint decision. Deputy Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, when he emerged from the Judges chamber seemed disappointed by the Adjournment. He however did not address the media who had gathered at the Court.