Three residential properties of Alfred Woyome are set to be sold to offset part of the GH¢47.2 million he owes the state.
The state will be hoping to get at least GHc14.9 million from the sale of these properties.
Two of the properties are located at Trasacco Valley and a third Kpehe in Accra.
The Lands Commission conducted the revaluation of the properties to establish the lowest possible price for sale on July 9, which is expected to be via public auction.
A fourth property, the Plant and Machinery of a quarry belonging to Anator Quarry Limited has also been valued for sale according to a writ sighted by Citi News.
One of the residential properties at Trasacco Valley has been valued at GHc7,769,000 and the other Trasacco Property was valued at GHc4,485,000.
The residential property at Kpehe has been valued at GHc 2,703,000.
The Supreme Court recently gave the Attorney General permission to sell properties belonging to Mr. Woyome.
The ruling followed claims made by the Receivers of defunct UT Bank that some of the properties identified by the state for sale was theirs.
According to the lawyers of the defunct UT Bank, Mr. Woyome used the said properties as collateral for loans at the bank which he failed to pay back.
Woyome also lost his case at the African Court on Human and People’s Rights against the state.
Woyome failed in the attempt to stop the state from retrieving the wrongful judgment debt paid him at the African Court of human and people’s right in Arusha.
Alfred Woyome argued that his rights were being violated by the attempts of the Attorney General to get him to pay back the money, but the court thought otherwise and dismissed the case.
But according to judges, Woyome’s right to non-discrimination, right to equality before the law, equal protection before the law and his right to be heard by an impartial tribunal had all not been violated.
Background
Mr. Woyome had sued the state for a breach of contract relating to the construction of stadia for the 2008 tournament and was awarded the default judgment because the state did not put in a defence.
However, an Auditor General’s report released in 2010 said the amount was paid illegally to Mr.Woyome, who is a known National Democratic Congress financier.
He was subsequently arrested on February 3, 2011, after the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), which was commissioned by the late President John Atta Mills to investigate the matter, had cited him for wrongdoing.
Mr. Woyome was initially charged with conspiracy, defrauding by false pretence and corrupting a public officer.
He was later re-arraigned and charged with two counts of causing financial loss to the state and defrauding by false pretence.
The interim report of EOCO, which was presented to the President on February 2, 2012, also indicted Yaw Osafo Maafo, the then-Minister of Education, Youth and Sports and his deputy, Mr. O. B. Amoah.
But Mr Osafo-Maafo secured a court order which declared that EOCO’s investigation of him as illegal.
On June 5, 2012, Mr. Woyome was discharged but re-arrested and charged with two counts of causing financial loss and defrauding by false pretence.
The case unravelled until March 12, 2015, where the Fast Track High Court trying Mr. Woyome, again discharged him.
Delivering his judgment, Justice John Ajet-Nasam, said the State woefully failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Woyome was guilty.
Justice Ajet-Nasam also said there were no contradictions to the documentation evidence on the agreement for the compensation claimed by the accused person.
But in 2014, the Supreme Court ordered Mr. Woyome to pay back the amount, after former Attorney General and now Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu challenged the legality of the judgment debt paid the businessman.
Following delays in retrieving the money, the 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.
