Woyome's African Court case transient irritation; He will vomit the money – Baako

Editor-in-chief of the New Crusading Guide Newspaper says Alfred Agebsi Woyome's temporary relief at the African High Court is nothing more than a “transient irritation” adding, when when the dust settles, the business man will lose badly even at the Tanzania based Human Rights Court. 

Kweku Baako says no matter what he does to impede the progress of the case, he will "vomit"  the 51 million cedis wrongfully paid to him.

Speaking on Peace FM’s morning show ‘Kokroko’ on Wednesday, the veteran journalist said Woyome's case at the Human Rights Court will yield no fruitful results. “It has no long term effect, it won’t get anywhere”, he said, adding “he will lose and lose so badly.”

Mr. Woyome filed an application at the African Court in January this year when government decided to sell his properties to offset the GHS51.2 million paid to him as judgement debt.

The court had ordered him to pay back the money on grounds that the contract between the state and Waterville Holdings Limited for the construction of stadia in 2006 for CAN 2008 was unconstitutional and invalid.

In his application, the businessman alleged that government did not respect the terms of the agreement that governed the financial engineering role he played in the transaction, and as such his rights and freedoms recognized under the African Rights Charter had been violated.

Mr Woyome prayed the African Court to halt all processes seeking to execute the Supreme Court’s July 29, 2014 judgement, until his case has been determined by the ACHPR.

In a decision that would come to the businessman as a huge relief, the African Court on Monday ordered government to halt steps to retrieve the money wrongfully paid to the businessman until there has been a final determination on the matter at the African High Court.

The court said attempts by the government to sell the properties of the businessman is likely to prejudice the case brought before it by Mr Woyome.

But that relief was short lived as the Supreme Court on Tuesday ignored the African Court ruling and asked government to proceed with its attempt to retrieve the sum.

Deputy Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame in praising the decision of the Supreme Court, stated that even though the African Human Rights Court has been ratified by Ghana's Parliament, it has not Act backing same. 

For Mr Baako, the businessman will pay the money regardless of what he does or where he goes in a bid to stall the process in retrieving the money.

He said the businessman’s trip to the African Court was a waste of time, in a bid to avoid oral examination in the Supreme Court.

But “Whether he likes it or not he’ll cough the money. The Supreme Court has already determined the case that he didn’t have a valid contract before the money was paid.

“That one is settled, it is no longer in dispute. So heads or tail, he’ll pay the money,” he said.

The missing link for Mr Baako, however, is the people involved in the payment of the GHS51.2 million judgement debt. 

He is unable to comprehend how these public officials allowed this to slip by and why until now nothing has been done to them.

“Those political functionaries, the ministers, deputy ministers and party top shots who facilitated that payment, we haven’t yet looked at them.

“A thorough investigations into the conduct of those people should be initiated…how did they sit for one person to swindle them and the entire nation,” he queried.

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