Woyome's two properties licensed for auction

General News of Thursday, July 25, 2019

Source: kasapafmonline.com

2019-07-25

The state obtained the blessing of the Supreme Court to proceed with the sale of two of the properties of businessman and court debtor Alfred Woyome.

The two properties for sale at the moment have a forced sale worth 11.7 million Cedis and include an executive building in Trbadacco and a residential building in Caprice.

The total portfolio of properties to be sold consists of two office buildings located in Trbadaco, Accra; the office complex of Anator Holdings, a company owned by Mr. Woyome; two residential buildings in Caprice and Abelemkpe, two suburbs in Accra, as well as a mining quarry belonging to the judgment debtor in the eastern region of Ghana.

The formation of five members of the Supreme Court presided over by Judge Baffoe-Bonnie revealed a conflict over one of the executive buildings located in Trbadaco in Accra, ordering the court to conduct its badessment to determine the value of the forced sale at its next meeting. October 16, 2019.

After the hearing, Lady Godfred Yeboah, Deputy Attorney General, revealed that the Prosecutor's Department had received information relating to the badessment of the remaining property identified by the State and that it was would file them in court for a forced sale on them too. He hoped that at the next postponement date, the whole process would be over to clear things up.

Context

A Supreme Court justice, Judge Alfred Benin, ordered on June 27, 2019 the sale of several properties identified as belonging to the businessman Alfred Woyome, in order to compensate the debt of 51 million Ghana Cedis that was paid to him illegally by the state.

The state has identified properties owned by Mr Woyome, estimated at 20 million GHc, which could prove essential to illegally recover the debt of 51.2 million GH ¢ that it has received of the state. UT Bank, now extinct, has claimed some of the properties identified by the state as theirs. Lawyers for the defunct UT Bank claimed that Woyome had used the properties as collateral for loans from the bank, which he had not repaid. Property ownership according to UT Bank, based on loan default, automatically transferred to the bank.

Lady Godfred Yeboah, Deputy Attorney General, stated that there was no evidence that said properties had been used as collateral by Woyome to secure loans from UT Bank. The properties, maintained by the state, are owned by Mr. Woyome and therefore urged the court to declare them as true in order to allow the state to sell them.

In his judgment, the Benin Judge stated that he had concluded that UT's badertion that Mr. Woyome had used the two Trasacco buildings as collateral for a loan was false, as they were not used. 39 had provided no credible evidence to support their claim. With respect to the Anator Holdings office complex, the Court found that all of the evidence showed that it was indeed owned by Mr. Woyome and no one. Subsequently, the court ordered that all properties identified by the state be sold in settlement of judgment debt to the state.