The office of Businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome, has indicated that, he has not been served with the Supreme Court’s order for his impending oral examination on June 29.
The Court granted an application for the Attorney General’s Department to orally examine the businessman on the means and capacity to repay the over fifty-one million Ghana cedis judgment debt to the State.
The Court had also placed a temporary charge on the shares of Mr. Woyome pending the 29th June hearing.
But personal assistant to Mr. Woyome, Reginald Dogbey, told Citi News his boss is yet to be served with the notice indicating the examination.
“I can state on authority that we have never received anything as at yesterday [Tuesday]. If by now it has been served at the office fine, but as of Tuesday, we did not receive any order from the court. When you are not served, for what purpose are you going to court?It might be something somebody is manufacturing so definitely as the news has been leaked to the media, I believe the office will be served.”
A document sighted by Citi News on Monday indicated that, the Attorney General’s office had initiated processes to orally examine businessman, Alfred Agbesi Woyome in the controversial GHc 51 million judgment debt saga.
The document noted that, Mr. Woyome will be examined on issues pertaining to whether he owed any debts, whether he has property to satisfy the debt, and the manner in which he used the judgment debt money paid him, among others.
Background to Judgment Debt saga
Mr. Woyome was paid 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, single-handedly 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.
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 21017 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.
Source: citifmonline.com