Woyome heads for international arbitration on Ghc51.2 judgement debt

Businessman, Alfred Agbesi Woyome has decided to go for an international arbitration with regards to the GH¢51.2 million judgment debt which the Supreme Court has asked him to refund.

He gave the hint of his latest move on Thursday after the Supreme Court dismissed an application by one Abdulai Yusif Fanash Muhammed who had filed an application to contest the Supreme Court's jurisdiction over the case.

Muhammed had prayed the court to declare that the financial engineering claims by Mr Woyome arising out of the tender bid by Vamed Engineering GmbH/Waterville Holdings during the procurement process in June 2005 until its wrongful abrogation in August 2005 was not an international business transaction within the meaning of Article 181 of the 1992 Constitution.

Counsel for Mr Woyome, Ken Anku who spoke to Graphic Online's Seth J. Boakye said even though Muhammed's case would have inured to the benefit of Mr Woyome, he was not the one who initiated it contrary to arguments that the suit by Muhammed was spearheaded by Mr Woyome.

'The action at the Supreme Court was not commenced by Alfred Agbesi Woyome. We were only brought in as defendants and the plaintiff withdrew his action so we also withdraw our action,' he maintained.

Mr Anku explained that 'this is not the end of the case' as his client in the next couple of days would head to the International Chamber of Commerce to argue out his case that the contracts that were terminated by the Kufuor administration was not an international contract as maintained by the Supreme Court.

'My client has always maintained the position that the two contracts that were terminated by Kufuor were not what he went to court to seek for payment,' he said.

The Supreme Court in July 2014 ordered Mr Woyome to refund GH¢51.2 million to the state on the grounds that he got the money out of unconstitutional and invalid contracts between the state and Waterville Holdings Limited in 2006 for the construction of stadia for CAN 2008.

Click to listen to Woyome's lawyer
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