Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Pressure group OccupyGhana says it’s
monitoring closely the Attorney General’s latest effort to retrieve the GH¢51.2
million unlawfully paid to Alfred Agbesi Woyome.
The Supreme Court in July 2014 ordered
Mr. Woyome to pay back the huge amount to the state following a suit filed by
former AG, Martin Amidu but the order has fallen on deaf ears.
OccupyGhana issued a statement yesterday backing
the step being taken the current A-G, Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong to finally
retrieve the money from Mr. Woyome, who is said to be one of the financiers of
the ruling NDC.
Woyome is busily campaigning for
President John Mahama in the Volta region, raising doubts about the ability of
the relevant authorities to retrieve the huge money paid to the NDC financier.
Oral Examination
“OccupyGhana is gratified to read press
reports about the latest step finally taken by the Attorney-General’s
Department to recover the GH¢51m owed to Ghana by Alfred Woyome. This step was
the application to the Court to order the oral examination of Woyome on his
assets because of his abject refusal or failure to pay the judgment debt owed
to Ghana, and the apparent non-availability of any assets against which the
judgment may be executed.”
According to OccupyGhana, the step that
the Attorney-General has taken “is based on the procedural rule that if after
judgment, a debtor does not pay immediately, the creditor may apply to the
court for an order that would bring the debtor before the court to be examined
as to his means.”
“This step can be very effective because
it is not only intended to be a mere examination of the debtor, but a
cross-examination, of the severest kind, as to his means.”
“Thus, a debtor would be compelled by the
court to disclose where all of his assets are, and if they have been sold or
paid out, how that happened. If the debtor does not disclose the assets or
tells lies, he could be imprisoned for contempt or worse tried and sentenced
for perjury.”
Belated but brilliant
The pressure group described the AG’s
action as “belated, yet brilliant,” saying “Woyome would be compelled to
testify, not only as to where his assets are, but also where and how he spent
the GH¢51 million that he received from Ghana and whether any of those sums are
available for execution.”
They said “to the extent that any persons
benefitted from Ghana’s monies, they also stand the risk of being pursued by
the Republic on an action in tracing, which would track and trace the monies
into the hands of every recipient, and possibly recover the monies from them.”
“We believe that for the people of Ghana,
this will be an opportunity to discover exactly what happened to our monies
that were wrongfully paid to Woyome and recover those monies.”
“We are aware that on 19th October 2016
the Supreme Court granted the order and set 10th November 2016 as the date when
Woyome is to attend court for this all-important testimony on where his assets
are, and possibly how he spent the GH¢51 million.”
OccupyGhana Notice
“While expressing our satisfaction with
the latest and drastic step, however, belated it has been, we wish to notify
the Attorney-General that we are monitoring this process and the execution of
the court order very closely.”
“We believe that the Attorney-General is
taking all of these steps, however belatedly, in a genuine attempt to recover
the monies that Woyome still owe to Ghana.
“We also believe that this process will
be followed through without fear or favour.”
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