LAWYER DEFENDS JUDGEMENT DEBT PAYMENT

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu & Rita Oduro

Friday, June 6, 2014

A lawyer who represented one Peter Abbam to secure about ¢2 as judgement debt has been defending his actions.

According to Kwami Amponsah Agati Esq. he followed due process to secure the payment for his client and insisted that he was not aware that there was any report excluding Mr. Abbam’s name from claimants who were due compensation following the demolition of their property in the redevelopment of the Kanda Highway, Accra in the 1990s.

In spite of Mr. Agati’s insistence, The Commission of Enquiry investigating the payment of judgement debts said that per documents at the Department of Urban Roads, Mr. Abbam did not deserve to be paid the whooping sum.

The ‘Commission of Enquiry into the payment of Judgement Debt and Akin’ under C.I. 79 to investigate the frivolous and dubious payments of huge monies to undeserving individuals and companies, was appointed by President John Dramani Mahama after public uproar over the payments in what has now come to be termed as Judgement Debts (JD).

Notable among them were payments made to CP (€94 million) and the never-ending case of GH¢51.2million parted to the self-styled National Democratic Congress (NDC) financier, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, both of which many believed were dubious and frivolous.

Mr. Agati who was subpoenaed before the commission said an amount of ¢127,000 was to be paid but because the government refused, accrued interest brought the total debt to about ¢2billion.

He told the Sole-Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau of the Court of Appeal that he took over the case from E. Allotey Mingle & Co in August 2003 and proceeded to diligently pursue the matter.

He said the Attorney General’s (AG) Department had entered appearance in the case but never filed any defence and also added that at some point the AG’s office had responded to Mr. Abbam’s letter assuring him of an amicable settlement.

Mr. Agati further said that in the course of the case, valuer was brought in to testify on behalf of Mr. Abbam before the judgment was delivered. He added that it was after they garnisheed the account of the Department of Urban Roads that the AG tried to set aside their entry of judgement even up to the Court of Appeal level but failed.

“They were trying to set aside a non-executable judgement but it was a blunder,” he said and added that the emerging evidence that Mr. Abbam did not deserve compensation was never made known to him at the time.

AG’s Turn

The AG, represented by Chief State Attorney Mrs. Dorothy Afriyie-Ansah also testified in various judgement debts matters in which the AG was party.

She confirmed compensation payment of ¢151million to the family of one Dickson Lumor where the police had admitted negligence.

It emerged that the AG in 2010 consolidated a criminal and civil case involving one Yakubu Kasule in the Gbewaa Civil Engineering Limited against the AG and subsequently paid huge compensation but Mrs. Afriyie-Ansah said she would crosscheck from the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) and revert to the commission.

She also submitted the case file involving Rockshell International and the government in which they were paid a reduced amount of $35 million instead of $70 million.