Embattled businessman, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, says he will not apologise for accusing the supreme court justices of persecution following the recent development in the GHc51 million judgement debt saga.
Speaking on The Big Issue, Mr. Woyome said he was well within his right to express his reservations with the Supreme Court’s handling of the case.
His accusation came on the back of the Supreme Court’s approval for him to be orally examined by former Attorney General, and anti-corruption campaigner, Martin Amidu.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Friday, Yaw Oppong, a private legal practitioner, however said such comments made Mr. Woyome a candidate for contempt of court as he urged the businessman to withdraw his comments.
But in response to Mr. Oppong’s remarks, Mr. Woyome said, “that lawyer was analysing my statements and my discussions with the press and the Ghanaian people and jumped quickly and said I should apologise and I wanted to ask him what I should apologise for?”
Describing himself as law abiding, Mr. Woyome stressed that, he has always respected the judiciary and that he “will be the number one person to defend every judge under the institution but if they have erred, they have erred.”
“The constitution and the framers of it have done it such that they [the judiciary] can interpret it and also enforce it, but we as citizens have also been given the right to defend the constitution and I state that I will defend to the last drop of my blood.”
“If as a citizen, I feel and I have given some examples why I feel that I am being persecuted and it is clear, why shouldn’t I say so; when the Supreme Court registry becomes the house number of Martin Amidu. When we want to serve Martin Amidu they will tell you leave it here, he will come for it,” Mr. Woyome argued.
Background
Alfred Woyome was paid GHc 51 million after he claimed that he helped Ghana to raise funds to construct stadia for purposes of hosting the 2008 African Nations Cup.
However an Auditor General’s report released in 2010 said the amount was paid illegally him and subsequently, the Supreme Court in 2014 ordered Mr. Woyome to pay back the money after Mr. Amidu challenged the legality of the payments in court.
Some efforts by the Attorney General to retrieve the GHc51 million, including selling his property to defray the debt, proved futile.
In 2016, the AG’s department, led by the Minister for Justice, Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, decided to discontinue an application to examine the one-time NDC financier orally because it was considering a possible settlement with the defendant.
But this compelled Mr. Amidu to return to court to seek his eventually successful order to examine Mr. Woyome.
