Woyome will pay GHC 51m with interest – MP

The Member of Parliament for Afigya Kwabre North and Deputy Ranking Member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, Nana Amaniampong Marfo, has said embattled businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome will be forced to pay interest on the questionable GHC 51million judgement debt he was paid back in 2010.

According to him, although Mr Woyome has taken the matter to an international court for settlement, the court will likely direct that the case be brought back to Ghana for adjudication.

Mr Woyome petitioned the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) over the GHC 51.2 million judgment debt paid to him by the past National Democratic Congress (NDC) government which the Supreme Court has ordered him to refund to the state.

The apex court ruled that he got the money wrongfully. However, dissatisfied with the ruling by the court, Mr Woyome has resorted to an international body to determine the matter.

Responding to his petition, the ICC said: “The Secretariat of the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce acknowledges receipt of your request for arbitration.”

But speaking in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom, on Accra100.5FM on Thursday June 15 in connection with the order given to the Auditor General to, as a matter of urgency, begin the process of surcharging any person found to have misappropriated public funds in their reports, the MP said: “He [Mr Woyome] has now taken the matter to the International Court of Arbitration. They will throw the case out and ask him to come home and deal with it.

“After the case has been dealt with in Ghana, we will calculate the interest that has accrued on the GHC 51 million for him to pay. It is getting to almost 10 years since he got that questionable money and so just calculate the interest on it and you will know how much he will pay.

“This is not going be a witch hunt; however if there are witches in the system, we need to hunt them.”