The Attorney General’s Department has taken further steps to sell the
mansions of embattled National Democratic Congress (NDC) financier,
Alfred Agbesi Woyome, to defray the GH¢51.2 million he fraudulently
received as judgement debt.
The Office of the Attorney General on Friday filed a motion at the
Supreme Court for a determination of the reserved price for three of his
residential properties which the state is selling through public
auction.
This is in fulfillment of the judgement of the Supreme Court which
ordered the state to sell Woyome’s properties after he had tried to hide
some of them in the name of the defunct UT Bank.
Reserved Price Adoption
The adoption of the reserved price filed by the Deputy Attorney
General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, will determine the least price for which
each of the identified residential properties is to be sold.
The three properties – two located at Trasacco Valley and one at Kpehe,
Caprice, all in Accra – have been valued by the Lands Commission
following an application by the Registrar of the Supreme Court.
DAILY GUIDE checks show that this is the first set of sales of Woyome’s
properties. His quarry in the Eastern Region and a building at East
Legon, which houses his Anator Holding Company, will be valued soon.
According to an affidavit in support of the motion for reserved price,
the Land Commission’s valuation of the three properties values the three
mansions at GH¢21,368,000.
The state may, however, not be able to get the GH¢21,368,000 for the
properties due to a re-evaluation of the properties which placed a
forced sale value of the three properties at GH¢14,957,000 which is the
least amount the state could get from the sale of the three mansions.
Per the re-evaluation done by the Lands Commission, each of the two
mansions located at Trasacco Valley in Accra has a market value of
GH¢11,099,000, with a forced sale value of GH¢7,769,000 and
GH¢6,407,000, with a forced sale value of GH¢4,485,000.
The third one which is located at Kpehe in Accra, where Woyome himself
is said to reside, has a market value of GH¢3,862,000 with a forced sale
value of GH¢2,703,000.
Properties Sale
The Supreme Court presided over by a single judge, Justice Alfred A.
Benin, last month ordered the state to go ahead and sell four properties
of beleaguered businessman Alfred Woyome to defray the judgement debt
he fraudulently took from the state.
Woyome then colluded with defunct UT Bank to hide the properties from the state as the court found out.
African Court
Prior to the judgment of the Supreme Court, Woyome had run to the
African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights based in Arusha, Tanzania,
where he filed a case against Ghana claiming discrimination and
violations against his human rights.
However, in a unanimous decision, the court dismissed the application
stating that 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.
Payment Plan
Mr. Woyome has since vowed to fight the decision of the single judge by seeking a review at the apex court.
He, however, said should the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Right
order that he pays the money, he will sit with the state and come up
with a payment plan.