The Supreme Court has adjourned to January 26, 2017, the case in which Former Attorney General, Martin Amidu, is seeking to orally examine businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome on the GHC51.2 million paid him in judgement debt.
The adjournment is to await the outcome of a motion seeking an interpretation of whether the Supreme Court constituted by a single judge, can interpret constitutional matters before the Court as was the case in Woyome’s case.
The Supreme Court constituted by a single judge, Justice Anin Yeboah, on November 16 granted permission to Amidu to orally examine Woyome on the controversial GHC51.2 million paid to him by the State.
But a private legal practitioner and lawyer for Woyome consequently filed two separate motions one of which is seeking a reversal of the decision by Justice Anim because the court, which was constituted by a single judge, lacked jurisdiction to give the order of November 16.
When the court resumed Thursday on the substantive case, TV3’s Selorm Amenya reported that the Justice Anin Yeboah explained in view of the motion challenging his order of November 16, he would adjourned to await the outcome of the motion.
Mr Woyome obtained the amount on claims that he helped Ghana to raise funds for the construction of stadia the CAN 2008 Nations Cup hosted by Ghana.
An Auditor General’s report released in 2010, however said the amount was paid illegally to the businessman. The former AG, who has earned the accolade citizen vigilante for his anti-corruption pursuit, suo moto [on his own] initiated a suit at the Supreme Court against Woyome, which eventually lead to the declaration of the payment as unconstitutional two years ago.
The Court thus ordered the retrieval of GHC51.2 million from Mr Woyome but the businessman has paid only GHC 4 million to the State.
Attorney General in an attempt to retrieve the money, filed an application to that sought to orally examine Mr Woyome in court but later retreated and withdrew the application with liberty to re-file.
The AG’s decision compelled the Mr Amidu to file a similar application, which was granted by the Court on November 16. The Court fixed November 24 for the said examination.
But barely 2014 hours to the face-off in court, Woyome’s lawyers on Wednesday filed initiated a writ at the Supreme Court to challenge the legality of the court’s order of November 16.
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