A single Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Alfred Benin, has ordered that several properties identified as belonging to the embattled businessman, judgment debtor, and known bankroller of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Alfred Woyome, be sold to offset some 51 Million Ghana Cedis judgment debt paid illegally to him by the State.
The properties are two executive buildings located at Trassaco in Accra, the office complex of Anator Holdings, a company owned by Mr. Woyome, two residential buildings at Caprice and Abelemkpe, both suburbs in Accra, as well as a mining quarry owned by the judgement debtor in the Eastern Region of Ghana.
The state identified the properties owned by Mr. Woyome which are estimated at GHc 20 million that it believes could prove vital in retrieving the GH¢ 51.2 million judgement debt he received from the state unlawfully.
The now-defunct UT Bank has claimed some of the properties identified by the state as theirs. It was the claim of lawyers of the defunct UT Bank that Woyome, used the said properties as collateral for loans at the bank which he failed to pay back. Ownership of the properties according to UT Bank, based on the failure to pay back the loans, transferred to the bank automatically.
The state represented by the Deputy Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, argued that there is no evidence to show that the said properties were used as collateral by Woyome to secure loans from UT Bank. The properties, the state maintained, are owned by Mr. Woyome and therefore prayed the court to declare same as true to pave way for the state to sell them.
The Apex Court was expected to deliver its judgment on the 13th of May, 2019. However, after meeting with all the parties involved in the case in chambers, enquiries by journalists revealed that judgement on the UT Bank side of the case according to the judge is ready but that of the Anator Holdings is not ready. The Presiding Judge, therefore, instructed that the parties should return to court today the 27th of June, 2019 for a joint decision.
In his judgement, Justice Benin said he has concluded that the claim by UT Bank that Mr. Woyome used the two buildings at Trasacco as collateral for a loan is false as they did not provide any credible evidence to substantiate their claim.
On the issue of the office complex of Anator Holdings, the Court held that all evidence point to the fact that they are indeed owned by Mr Woyome and not anyone else. Subsequently, all the properties identified by the State are to be sold in satisfaction of the judgement debt owed the State. The Court ordered cost of 60,000.00 Ghana Cedis each against defunct UT Bank and Anator Holdings Limited. – Wilberforce Asare
