Submission of ‘no case’: Woyome to know fate April 17

The Financial Division of the High Court will, on April 17,2014, rule on the submission of ‘no case’ filed by businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome on the GH¢51.2 million judgement debt saga.

The presiding judge, Mr Justice John Ajet-Nasam, announced the date after the parties had been heard in camera yesterday.

On March 28,2014, the state filed the necessary papers in court in rebuttal to Woyome’s claim of ‘no case’ against him.

Mr Ajet-Nasam had earlier directed the state to file its response to the businessman’s claim to enable the court to rule on the application.

The state, in honouring its promise, filed all the necessary papers, indicating that Woyome had a case to answer.

Woyome is standing trial for wilfully causing financial loss to the state and defrauding by false pretence.

He obtained a GH¢51.2 million judgement debt payment in June 2010 but the state contends the payment was obtained fraudulently.

The Attorney- General is, therefore, seeking an order for the refund of the judgement debt paid to Woyome because, according to the state, it was procured by fraudulent means.

January 30 proceedings

The state, on January 30, 2014, brought its case to a close, after it had called nine witnesses.

A Chief State Attorney, Mr Mathew Amponsah, had announced that the prosecution had exhausted the number of prosecution witnesses billed to testify against Woyome.

State prosecutors say Mr Woyome, in February 2010, made a false representation that the government owed him two per cent of €1,106,470,587 for his services of financial engineering for the rehabilitation of the Kumasi, Accra and El- Wak stadia ahead of the 2008 African Cup of Nations.

At the hearing on November 6,2013, the ninth prosecution witness told the court that responses from the Bank of Austria to two institutions in Ghana indicated that there was no agreement to provide funding for any project in Ghana.

The two institutions — Police Administration and the Attomey-General’s Department — had written to the bank for responses on whether Mr Woyome had any agreement with the bank to provide funding for projects in the country.

The witness, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Edward Odame Okyere, an investigator with the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, said the bank also responded that there was no binding offer from it to fund projects in Ghana.

Woyome’s Defence

Woyome, on February 17,2014, filed a defence of ‘no case’.

In a written application filed by Woyome’s lawyers before the court, he stated, among other things, that all the nine prosecution witnesses failed to provide substantial evidence to back their claim that the GHc5l.2 million was wrongfully paid to him.

Counsel for Woyome, Mr Osarfo Buabeng, said all the nine witnesses he had cross-examined during the trial failed to provide substantial evidence that could implicate his client.

Source: Graphic