Supreme Court of Ghana yesterday ignored an order made by the African Court for Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) asking Ghana to halt efforts to retrieve 51.2 million Ghana cedis wrongfully paid to Alfred Agbesi Woyome.
The African Court on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) in Tanzania on November 24, 2017 ordered that government put on hold efforts to retrieve the money paid the businessman pending a determination of the substantive case he brought before the court.
“The court finds that the situation raised in the present application is of extreme gravity and urgency on the basis that should the applicant’s property be attached and sold to recover the GH¢51,283,480.59 the applicant would suffer irreparable harm if the application on the merits is decided in his favour…” the 11-member panel said.
Lawyers for the businessman yesterday presented the order to the Supreme Court asking that all proceedings relating to the repayment of the money be suspended.
This brought to two, the number of motions the court was to determine. While the first motion aimed to stay the proceedings, the other sought to arrest the ruling of the court on the motion for stay of execution.
Deputy Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, opposed the application, saying the Treaty setting up the African Court even though has been ratified by Ghana’s Parliament, has not been incorporated into Ghana’s laws.
Delivering the decision of the 5-member panel, Justice Anin Yeboah said the businessman had failed to show any factual or legal basis for the court to hold on with its ruling.
The panel also unanimously dismissed the other application asking that all processes in relation to retrieval of the money be put on hold.
Deputy Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, told the press after the proceedings that government will not cease attaching properties of the businessman.
He also found the ruling by the ACHPR strange, as there was no opportunity by lawyers representing the state to present their side of the story prior to the ruling.
