The Attorney General's Department has filed a notice at the Supreme Court to discontinue the case it filed about a week ago against Mr Woyome.
The notice of discontinuance states: “please take notice that the 1st Defendant Judgment Creditor (Attorney General) herein has this day (26th Day of October 2016) discontinued the present application to orally examine the 3rd Defendant Judgment Debtor (Alfred Agesi Woyome) with liberty to reapply.”
The Attorney-General’s Department in 2014 initiated moves to fully recover the judgment debt paid Mr Woyome, after the Supreme Court, on July 29, 2014, ordered Woyome to refund the money paid him 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.
The court, in a unanimous decision, held that the contracts upon which Woyome made and received the claim were in contravention of Article 181 (5) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, which requires such contracts to be laid before and approved by Parliament.
Pressure group OccupyGhana believes the Attorney General is discontinuing the case against Mr Woyome in order to protect his accomplices in the controversial judgment debt saga.
Describing the decision as horrifying and disgusting, the group, in a press statement, observed that the AG discontinued the case because they were aware that some of the questions Mr Woyome might be asked would have exposed some government officials who benefited from the booty.
Meanwhile, the New Patriotic Party has served notice that it will lead Ghanaians in street protests if President John Mahama and his government fail to retrieve the judgment debt paid Mr Woyome, especially after the NDC government itself had admitted that the monies paid the businessman “were wrong, unjustified and undeserved.”
“Per the solo efforts of Mr Martin Amidu, the Supreme Court in 2014 ordered that the monies should be retrieved, describing the payment as a scheme to create, loot and share taxpayers monies. President Mahama and his government did not seek an order for payment with interest despite the Supreme Court ruling,” the party said in a statement signed by Nana Akomea, the Communications Director.
According to the statement, even though the little hope Ghanaians had that the monies paid Mr Woyome were going to be retrieved had suffered a major setback with the decision of the AG, “the NPP and Ghanaians cannot let this corruption and wanton loss of taxpayers monies just go by.”
The party stressed in its statement: “Create, loot and share cannot be rewarded. President Mahama must account for our monies or be shown the red card.”
On the basis of an application moved and the order given, Mr Woyome was to be compelled by the court to disclose among other things whether there are any debts owed him; whether he has any property for satisfying the judgment and whether he used the monies paid to him in any investments within or outside Ghana.
But, according to OccupyGhana, after the order was obtained and served on Woyome, immense pressure was brought to bear on the Attorney-General’s Department to abandon that process.
"What we did not believe at the time was that on the very next day after our statement, the Attorney-General would so easily cave in to the pressure and abandon probably the only option left to Ghana to recover our money from Woyome,” the statement from the group said.
According the pressure group, with this current development, it is clearly convinced "this Government and its Attorney-General are either scared of Woyome or do not have the moral courage to pursue him for our money."
Giving reasons why the case is not a foregone conclusion, OccupyGhana noted that there is no pending application for one to be discontinued, adding that the application had been moved and granted already.
The statement explained that there was now a valid and subsisting order of the Supreme Court, which cannot be discontinued by any party, adding that unless it was set aside or vacated by the Supreme Court itself, that order remained.
"Second, technically, Woyome is a witness of the court, having been summoned on the orders of the court. Thus, even if the Attorney-General refuses to attend the November 10, 2016 proceedings to examine Woyome, the Supreme Court itself has the power to ask those relevant questions, and Woyome would be compelled to answer them and provide all the information required,” OccupyGhana clarified.
It further noted that since Martin Amidu is still a party to the court action, he has every right to appear in court on November 10, 2016, to seek permission of the court to examine Mr Woyome, with or without the Attorney-General.
The statement said it would forever remain an indelible truth how the Mahama-led NDC government had “deliberately bungled the civil case it reluctantly filed to claim the money from Woyome, and secretly paid the money to him at a time when that case was still pending.”
According to OccupyGhana, following the disposition of the AG after the judgment, it is probably the slowest and most reluctant enforcement steps in the nation’s history, adding that Ghanaians were sadly being told that Mr Woyome is broke, has sold all his assets and that there is nothing against which the state can recover the money.