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Alfred Agbesi Woyome
Alfred Agbesi Woyome

Certain findings of Judgement Debt Commission declared unconstitutional

The Supreme Court has declared certain findings made by the Judgement Debt Commission set up by former President John Dramani Mahama in 2012 unconstitutional.

The court held that it was unconstitutional for the commission to make findings on the Alfred Agbesi Woyome vrs Attorney-General and the Sky Consult vrs Ghana Post cases, two cases which had been determined by courts of competent jurisdiction.

In a unanimous decision yesterday, the seven-member panel, presided over by the Chief Justice, Ms Justice Sophia Akuffo, ordered the findings to be expunged from the Government White Paper.

“All findings, recommendations and statements made by the sole commissioner on judgement debts with regard to the Alfred Agbesi Woyome vrs Attorney-General and Sky Consult vrs Ghana Post are unconstitutional and same nullified,’’ the court said.

According to the court, those findings impugned the independence of the Judiciary and were in violation of articles 125 and 127 of the 1992 Constitution.

The judgement was read by Mr Justice William Atuguba.

Other members of the panel were Mrs Justice Sophia Adinyera, Mr Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, Mr Justice Jones Dotse, Mr Justice Anin Yeboah and Mr Justice A.A. Benin.

Judgement Debt Commission

The Commission of Inquiry into the Payment from Public Funds arising from Judgement Debts and Related Processes, headed by the Sole Commissioner, Mr Justice Yaw Appau, was set up by former President Mahama in October 2012, after many reported cases of alleged dubious judgement debts.

In 2015, Mr Justice Appau, a Court of Appeal judge later appointed a Supreme Court judge, submitted its findings to the government.

The findings, among other things, pointed out that certain judgement debts paid to certain individuals breached the laws of the land and caused financial loss to the state.

With regard to the Woyome vrs A-G case, the report found that “either through inadvertence or pure mischief through connivance, both the Chief State Attorney, Samuel Nerquaye Tetteh, who was charged with the defence of the suit in the trial court, and the trial judge did not scrutinise the processes filed before them with judicious eyes. If the trial judge, particularly, had done so, he would not have granted the application for default judgement in the first place”.

In the case of the Sky Consult vrs Ghana Post case, it concluded that the judgement debt paid to Sky Consult by Ghana Post was more than the company was entitled to.

Suit

In view of those findings, an individual named Mr Claude Oppon dragged the commission and the A-G to the Supreme Court.

He sought a declaration that the findings and recommendations made by the commission in relation to the two cases and the Government White Paper on those findings “amount to an interference in the judicial process and a violation of the independence of the Judiciary, as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution’’.

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