Woyome files motion to stop valuation of his assets

• Posted on October 16, 2017
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome, has challenged the legality of the valuation of his assets by the state.

Mr. Woyome challenged the state by filing a motion at the Supreme Court praying the court to declare the actions illegal and further halt it.

According to lawyers for Mr. Woyome, the order on which the state is relying to embark on the valuation process has elapsed and hence cannot be used.

Responding to the arguments by Mr. Woyome, a Deputy Attorney General, Godfred Dame, said the state’s action was based on a new order on the 6th January 2016, far different from the one being referred to by the businessman.

Earlier this month, the government began a valuation of Woyome’s properties in a quest to retrieve the GHs51m wrongfully paid to him.

Some security personnel and officials from the Ghana Valuation Board, were sent to the Trasacco residence of Mr. Woyome to conduct the valuation to build concrete evidence on his ability to pay the debt for his trial.

The case has been adjourned to the 20th of October for a ruling to be delivered.

Meanwhile, Alfred Woyome has filed a new application seeking to stop the ongoing oral examination which is also to be heard on Friday the 20th of October.

Background to saga

Mr. Woyome was paid the GHc 51 million 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.

Subsequently, the Supreme Court in 2014 ordered Mr. Woyome to pay back the money, after a former Attorney General, Martin Amidu, challenged the legality of the payments.

Following delays in retrieving the money, Supreme Court judges unanimously granted the Attorney-General clearance to execute the court’s judgment, ordering Mr. Woyome to refund the cash to the state.

There had been previous attempts to orally examine Mr. Woyome with Mr. Amidu himself, in 2016, filed an application at the Supreme Court seeking to examine Alfred Woyome, on how he was going to pay back the money, after the Attorney General’s office under the Mahama Administration, led by the former Minister for Justice, Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, discontinued a similar application.

In February 2017 however, Mr. Amdu withdrew his suit seeking an oral examination, explaining that the change of government and the assurance by the new Attorney General to retrieve all judgement debts wrongfully paid to individuals, had given him renewed confidence in the system.

-Citifmonline