Woyome panics over €25m judgment

Embattled businessman and a bankroller of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Alfred Agbesi Woyome, is extremely disturbed that some people who want to nail him have set an agenda rolling by using the media, in the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling ordering Waterville to refund €25 million wrongfully paid to it.

Mr. Woyome’s concerns come closely on the heels of last Friday’s ruling by the Supreme Court, where it ordered construction firm Waterville Holdings to refund €25million it unlawfully benefited from the government of the NDC as judgment debt, following a botched multi-million stadia construction project in 2006.

Waterville is a prosecution witness in the Woyome trial where the State is seeking to retrieve GH¢51.2million fraudulently paid to him as judgment debt.

Andrea Orlandi, Waterville Managing Director, had been to court where he testified against Alfred Agbesi Woyome, even though the Supreme Court conceded that both parties colluded to defraud the state since at a point they all had the same lawyer working on the payments.

The lawyers had been referred to the General Legal Council for disciplinary action for acting wrongfully in the matter leading to the payments to Waterville.

The nine-member panel, presided over by Justice S.K. Date-Bah, held that Waterville did not have any official contract with the Government of Ghana to deserve the judgment debt.

Mr. Woyome was also quoted as saying he did not have any written contract with the government, falling into the same pit with Waterville.

When the court issued its verdict on Friday, Mr. Woyome hurriedly organised a press conference to protest what he termed an attempt to rope him into the Waterville ruling.

It is unclear if the Supreme Court’s decision to order Waterville to refund the controversial judgment debt would influence the High Court hearing a similar case against Mr. Woyome.

“This is clearly an agenda setting item which has failed,” stated his new spokesman, Reginald Seth Dogbey.

Mr. Woyome categorically cited Joy Fm for furthering the ‘agenda’: “We are shocked and surprised by the 2:00 clock Joy News of today and the various network/media which purported that Alfred Woyome has been ordered by the Supreme Court together with Waterville to refund money paid to him,” he stated at the press conference, hurriedly organised in the afternoon, after the Supreme Court brought down the hammer on Waterville.

The Supreme Court did not rule on Mr. Woyome’s part of the controversial judgment debt purely on the grounds of jurisdiction because the High Court is currently sitting on both criminal and civil charges against the NDC bankroller.

Woyome’s Headache

The embattled Woyome, who is currently in the High Court facing both criminal and civil cases after the NDC government dragged him to court for “fraudulently” securing over GH¢51 million in judgment debt on its blind side, is certain that his opponents who are in a government that he openly claimed to have bankrolled, wanted to use him as a scapegoat.

He has threatened to expose all those he believes are involved in seeking his waterloo.

He has made no secret about the fact that these people are still in key positions in the current John Dramani Mahama government.

He says this kind of treatment has collapsed his business interest and is virtually living on hand-outs from friends and sympathisers.

Mr. Woyome was picked up Rambo-style late 2011, after the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) issued a report that seriously indicted the embattled businessman.

In his statement to the police after his arrest, Mr. Woyome listed people in the higher echelon of the then government of late President Mills who assisted him in securing the money.

They included a former Attorney General, Betty Mould Iddrisu, a former Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffour, a former Chief of Staff, Henry Martey Newman, a Deputy Chief of Staff, Alex Segbefia, among others.

The Verdict

On Friday, in a unanimous decision by a nine-member bench, presided over by Justice Dr Date-Baah, the court ruled that Waterville Holdings was not deserving of the multi-million Euro judgment award.

The decision followed a suit by a former Attorney General and Minister of Justice Martin Alamisi Kaiser Amidu, against the company and businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome and Austro-Invest Limited to recover huge sums he said were illegally paid to the respondents.

Mr. Amidu, who was sacked by the late President Atta Mills, decided to go to court last year because he felt the then Attorney General, Dr Benjamin Kunbuor, was not showing the necessary commitment to recover the judgment debt.

Waterville Holdings, one of the companies which spearheaded the construction of some stadia in Ghana ahead of the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, was paid the award after dragging the Government of Ghana to Court in 2009.

According to a statement issued by Mr. Woyome in 2012 to clear the air over the controversial payments, he stated: “Waterville was recommended and referred to Alfred Woyome by BIC [Building Industry Consultants], who were supervisory Consultants to the CAN 2008 Stadia and related projects. It is true that Waterville engaged the services of M-Powapack and Alfred Woyome to provide the financial advisory and consulting services referred to in your report.”

According to Mr. Woyome, Waterville contracted him as a “Financial Engineer” when Waterville purportedly won the bid for the stadium contract and it was through his effort of meeting the pre-condition of securing funds for the projects that Waterville won the bid; Waterville would not have won the bid. It is professional fees [together with attendant costs] that Mr. Woyome placed his claim on government and secured his compensation through protracted discussions with Government officials and ultimately a Court settlement,” he said in a statement issued late 2012.