Finally: Court decides Woyome’s fate today in GH¢51.2 million judgement debt

• Posted on April 30, 2014April 30, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The Financial Division of the Fast Track High Court will decide the fate of businessman, Alfred Woyome, Wednesday morning.

The court, presided over by Justice John Ajet-Nasam, two weeks ago adjourned judgement to today, Wednesday April 30, 2014 due to his ill health.

Mr Woyome had filed a submission of ‘no case’ in the ongoing GH¢51.2 million judgement debt trial.

State prosecutors say Mr Woyome, in February 2010, made a false representation that the government owed him two per cent of €1,106,470,587 for his services of financial engineering for the rehabilitation of the Kumasi, Accra and El-Wak stadia ahead of the 2008 African Cup of Nations.

Mr Woyome’s lawyer, Musa Ahmed, told Joy News after the case was first adjourned on April 17 this year that he is upbeat about the outcome.

“The prosecution did not present a case strong enough to warrant the accused person (Mr Woyome) to cede to open his defence”, he said.

He said he was confident about arguments he advanced in favour of his client, adding that state prosecutors have not presented a “prima facie case to warrant a decision in their favour”.

Facts

At the hearing on November 6, 2013, the ninth prosecution witness told the court that responses from the Bank of Austria to two institutions in Ghana indicated that there was no agreement to provide funding for any project in Ghana.

The two institutions — the Police Administration and the Attorney-General’s Department — had written to the bank for responses on whether Mr Woyome had any agreement with the bank to provide funding for projects in the country.

The witness, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Edward Odame Okyere, an investigator with the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, said the bank also responded that there was no binding offer from it to fund projects in Ghana.

Woyome”s Defence

Woyome, on February 17, 2014,  filed a defence of ‘no case’.

In a written application filed by Woyome’s lawyers before the court, he stated, among other things, that all the nine prosecution witnesses failed to provide substantial evidence to back their claim that the GHc51.2 million was wrongfully paid to him.

Counsel for Woyome, Mr Osarfo Buabeng, said all the nine witnesses he had cross-examined during the trial failed to provide substantial evidence that could implicate his client.

-joynews