Woyome faces Supreme Court March 31 over enforcement of judgement
Businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome yesterday walked to the registry of the Supreme Court to pick up processes filed by the Attorney-General’s Department to retrieve GH¢51.2 million judgement debt paid to him.
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According to court sources, the businessman personally picked up the hearing notice between 10:30 and 10:35 am yesterday.
Court bailiffs were last Wednesday, March 18, 2015 unable to serve the processes on him because his security details claimed he was not at home.
Meanwhile, all is now set for the Supreme Court to hear an application for enforcement of its July 29, 2014 judgement, which ordered Woyome to refund the GH¢51.2 million paid to him in 2010.
The hearing notice for a motion for leave to enforce the court’s judgement was served on Woyome by court bailiffs yesterday afternoon after he had left the court premises.
That was because the date had not been set by the court’s registry as of the time he picked the processes.
March 31, 2015 is the date
A hearing notice, signed by the acting registrar of the Supreme Court, Mr James Mensah, has set March 31, 2015 as the date for the hearing of the Attorney-General’s motion for enforcement.
“Take notice that the above-mentioned case has been fixed for Tuesday, March 31, 2015 at 9:30 am for hearing. If the case is called and you do not appear to answer, the court will proceed to hear same without you,” the hearing notice stated.
Thus, Woyome and other parties in the case, namely Waterville Holdings (BVI) Limited and Mr Martin Alamisi Amidu, are to be in court on the said date.
Mr Amidu, a former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, obtained the judgement against Woyome on July 29, 2014 thereby rendering them moot, processes initiated by the Attorney-General at the Commercial Court to recover the amount.
Background
The Supreme Court, on July 29, 2014 ordered 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.
It held, in a unanimous decision, that the contracts upon which 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.
The 11-member court, presided over by the Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, was ruling on a review application filed by Mr Amidu.
June 14, 2013 judgement
The court had on June 14, 2013 directed the international construction firm Waterville Holdings Limited (BVI) to refund all the money paid to it by the Ghana government on the premise that it had no valid and constitutional contractual agreement with the government.
Waterville is expected to refund 25 million euros it received from the government, following the court’s judgement that the said contract it entered into with the government for stadia construction for CAN 2008 was unconstitutional.
That was because it had contravened Article 181 (5) of the 1992 Constitution, which required such contracts to go to Parliament for approval.
Mr Amidu had, in the original suit, prayed the court to order Woyome to refund the money he had received as a result of the void contract the government had entered into with Waterville Holdings.
But the court declined jurisdiction over the issue, with the reason that the Attorney-General was currently pursuing the matter at the Commercial Court to retrieve the money but the court reversed its position on July 29, 2014 and thus quashed all processes at the Commercial Court.
The review
According to the applicant, who filed the application for review on July 12, 2013, he had read the two judgements delivered by the Supreme Court very carefully, along with other Ghanaians of like thinking, and had come to the conclusion that some aspects of the judgement contained “exceptional circumstances that have resulted in what we perceive may constitute a miscarriage of justice”.
He said the 1992 Constitution imposed both rights and obligations, particularly under articles 2 and 3, on every Ghanaian citizen to ensure that the constitutional order established by the Constitution was not threatened or by an unlawful means abrogated.
Contract null and void
In the Waterville judgement, the court declared as null and void and of no operative effect a contract titled: “Contract for the Rehabilitation (Design, Construction, Fixtures, Fittings and Equipment) of a 40,000 Seating Capacity Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi, Ghana” entered into between the Republic of Ghana and Waterville Holdings (BVI) Limited, of P.O. Box 3444, Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands on April 26, 2006.
The court further declared as null and void and of no legal effect proceedings at the High Court (Commercial Division) that entertained a suit brought against the state by Woyome on April 19, 2010.
Woyome freed
Meanwhile, the High Court on March 12, 2015 acquitted and discharged Woyome on two counts of defrauding by false pretences and causing financial loss to the state but the state has appealed against the judgement.
Writer’s email: [email protected].
