Woyome should name partakers of ill-gotten gain - Allotey Jacobs

Central Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Bernard Allotey Jacobs, has asked embattled business mogul Alfred Agbesi Woyome to stop wasting everyone's time and pay back his judgement debt to the State.

According to Allotey Jacobs, it is glaring that Mr. Woyome is only seeking to delay the enforcement of the court's ruling after perhaps, squandering the GHC 51.2 million he fraudulently received as judgement debt.

Contributing to a panel discussion Peace FM "Kokrokoo" Wednesday, he said Mr. Woyome should also mention the names of everyone who partook in the sharing of the spoils.

“If he has squandered the monies, he must pay up as simple as ABCD. He should also mention names if he disbursed some to other people,” Chairman Allotey said.

Roping in ACHPR

Lawyers for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) financier filed the application at the apex court to stay proceedings, as well as curtail efforts by the state to evaluate his properties until a determination of another related case being heard at the African Court on Human and People’s Rights in Arusha, Tanzania.

The application was filed in January this year when government decided to sell his properties to offset the GHS51.2 million paid to him as judgement debt.

The court had ordered him to pay back the money on grounds that the contract between the state and Waterville Holdings Limited for the construction of stadia in 2006 for CAN 2008 was unconstitutional and invalid.

In his application, the businessman alleged that government did not respect the terms of the agreement that governed the financial engineering role he played in the transaction, and as such his rights and freedoms recognized under the African Rights Charter had been violated.

Woyome's lawyers argued that until the African Court had given its ruling, the decision of the Supreme Court would invariably affect the decision of the former – a position Deputy Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame vehemently opposed.

Even before a panel of five judges, presided over by Justice Jones Dotse could give its ruling, Woyome’s lawyer, Osafo Buabeng, had moved another motion which sought to arrest the ruling of the court based on the application to stay proceedings.

He argued that the African Court had directed the government to halt the seizure of Woyome’s properties and any other moves that could infringe on his rights, until it makes a final decision on the matter before it.

Pyrrhic Victory

Although the African Court had ordered the government to halt the attempts to retrieve the money, it was short-lived as the judges decided to set aside the order.

In a unanimous decision, they dismissed the motion for lacking merit, legal or factual basis to arrest the judgement of the apex court.

On the substantive application seeking to halt attempts by the state to retrieve the money, as well as oral examination into Mr. Woyome’s sources of income, the court equally threw that out.

The panel of judges said the Attorney General is only carrying out its constitutional mandate in retrieving the money as imposed on it by the Constitution.

According to the judgment, the Supreme Court does not share its jurisdiction with any other court – be it national or international – and its decision is not affected by the directive of the African Court.

It is also the case of the panel of judges that Woyome and his lawyers failed to demonstrate how the court’s action was an infringement on his human rights.

The decision of the court to throw out the application gives the state the green light to continue to evaluate and seize more of Mr Woyome’s properties.