Ghana: Supreme Court Orders Two Banks To Clear Woyome’s Accounts

The Supreme Court has ordered two banks in Accra, to use all the money in Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome’s account to defray the GHC51.2million judgement debt he owes the state. Mr. Justice Annin Yeboah gave the order when three financial institutions appeared before him on Thursday, to give the statement of account of the judgement debtor (Woyome) following a garnishee order he granted the Attorney General’s Department about 10 days ago. They are the Agricultural Development Bank and UT Bank Ltd. The judge wanted to know whether there was enough deposits in Woyome’s account that could be used to settle his indebtedness as a result of the GHC51.2million he collected from the state, as judgement debt being two percent commission for playing financial engineering role towards the construction of three stadia for the CAN 2008.

Mr. Obed Kabu, who represented the ADB told the court that Mr. Woyome had five different accounts with the bank out of which three were foreign accounts and went ahead to give the account numbers and amount in each account as follows:

 I. Account No – 1161010010031401 – GHC966.58

 ii. Account No – 1161810010031401 – GHC29, 515.95

iii. Dollar Account No – 1163030010031401 – US$98.17 cents

iv. Dollar Account No – 1163040010031401 – US$32,779.68

v. Euro Account No – 1165030010031401 – €1, 226.72 .

These are the deposits in the account as of April 14, 2016. On the part of the UT Bank ltd, its representative, Joseph Louis Nelson, Relationship Manager, said that Mr. Woyome had opened two accounts, comprising cedi and dollar accounts and also gave out the following statement of account to the court:
i. Cedi Account – No – 0111206857017 GHC1,008.70

ii. Dollar Account – No – 1071206857027 – US$223.08 as of April 11, 2016

‘It’s hereby ordered by the court that moneys standing in the accounts of Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome be used to pay his judgement debt to the state,’ the judge said. However, Mr. Micheal Kwaku Antwi Anokye, Head of Legal Department, UNI Bank (GH) ltd, said Mr Woyome had never opened accounts with the bank as the records showed, and for that reason had no account.

Mr. Justice Yeboah was upset that ADB did not bring any management members to represent the bank, but rather sent a clerk attached to the legal department to come to court and present the statement of account of the judgement debtor.

He warned the bank through its solicitor, who was in court, Ms Adwoa Kessiwaa Boakye, that neither the Supreme Court nor any other courts would countenance such misconduct in future. The Ghanaian businessman had been acquitted and discharged by the high court and the court of appeal on the charges of defrauding the state by false pretenses and causing financial loss to the state.

The criminal charges were preferred against Mr. Woyome by the attorney general’s department but lost in both instances for failing to produce material witnesses during his trail at a high court, in Accra.