The Supreme Court has rejected a plea by businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome to pay the Gh¢46million he owes the state in instalment.
The legal team of Woyome told the Supreme Court Wednesday morning that their client was ready to pay Gh¢10million now and Gh¢4milllion every three months.Counsel for Woyome, Muda Adelawal, therefore moved an application for the court to halt the execution of its judgement in 2014 which ordered Woyome to pay the money. A five-member panel of the court presided over by Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, however, rejected the application, describing it as without merit.
In a ruling, the court held that Woyome had made similar promises in the past to pay the money in instalment but had failed to fulfil such promises. The court was of the view that given such luxury to Woyome would not be fair since the order for him to pay the money was given in 2014.
The other Justices on the panel were Justices Sule Gbadegbe, Anthony A Benin, Samuel Marful- Sau and Agnes Dordzi. The Supreme Court, on July 29, 2014, ordered Mr Woyome to refund GH¢51.2 million to the State on the grounds that he got the money out of unconstitutional and invalid contracts between the State and Waterville Holdings Limited in 2006 for the construction of stadia for CAN 2008.
The court held that the contracts upon which Mr Woyome made and received the claim were in contravention of Article 181 (5) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, which requires such contracts to be laid before and approved by Parliament.
On March 1, 2016, Mr Woyome prayed the court to give him three years to pay back the money but the court declined to grant his wish.He, however, refunded GH¢4 million in November 2016 and promised to pay the outstanding balance by quarterly installments of GH¢5 million, commencing April 1, 2017.
That did not materialise after the businessman initiated a litany of legal cases at the Supreme Court to support his case, which were all dismissed. Apart from fighting his cases in the country, Mr Woyome also sought relief from the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) based in Paris, France and the African Court of Justice based in Arusha, Tanzania.
In August 2017, the ICC threw out his case on the basis that he failed to properly invoke its jurisdiction. His case at the African Court of Justice was also dismissed in June, this year.
Source: Daily Graphic
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HI
Thanks all we need is the money .All those who have taken money from the gov should pay back with interest to about three times the money .If not sell off their property to the same amount.
Please let today be the last time you compare NDC to NPP.Your corrupt gov. paid subah.waterville,Isophoton,Wayome and above all gave the bauxite resource as a gift. The NPP is using the peoples money for free SHS and also giving life to the NABCO people and you have the nerves to make comparisons (BUS BRANDING)
Tell sir John,John boadu,yaw osafo marfo and Mr OB Amoah to quickly pay him back all de money they took from him as their share of de 51 million gh cedis thieefffsssss in government
I wish the criminal aspect of this WOYOME case could be brought back.I don't understand why Betty Mould and co. are still walking freely.When you see the money these people have chop illegaly in this country and they turn back to say "FREE SHS IS NOT GOOD"sometimes I wonder.I pray the A.G can open up the case for people to be jailed. BETTY and CO. are crooks and must be brought to book.
This Woyome guys 'koraaa'. Why is he WASTING everybody time, apart from the CREATE, LOOT & SHARE (NDC)?
Massa, tell Kwasi Pratt, Asiedu Nketia and all those who had their share to bring it. The story is simple. You have reached your level now, you cannot expand again. Well done great lawyer Godfred Odame.
Why is he only paying back the principal? That is like a slap on the wrist! At 5% interest compounded annually the interest alone will be 14million! How many families in Ghana are worth 14million? He should be made to pay back the money with interest even if it is simple interest! We are tired of these crooks taking advantage of the system to loot the state and when they are being held accountable they try to frustrate the law. He can go to ICC in the Hague but he will still pay this money upon his return. You have hundreds of thousands of unemployed graduates struggling to even feed a day yet one individual could milk the state to the tune of 51million for no work done! What is wrong with us as a country? We are sick of corrupt politicians from NDC and NPP. Away with both these parties