President John Mahama has denied allegations levelled against him by former Attorney General Martin Amidu that he had a hand in the Attorney General’s decision to discontinue the GHS51 million judgment debt case involving the state and businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave Mr Amidu the green light to examine Mr Woyome in connection with the GHS51 million judgment debt saga.
The Supreme Court said both parties should reappear in court on 24th November. Mr Amidu filed an application to examine Mr Woyome about two weeks ago. He said in a statement: “…I have this morning, 4th November, 2016, filed an application at the Supreme Court for leave to examine the judgment debtor as the citizen public interest plaintiff in favour of whom the case was decided for the Republic of Ghana.”
Mr Amidu’s action followed a move by the Attorney General to discontinue oral examination of Mr Woyome.
The AG’s notice said: “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 Agbesi Woyome] with liberty to reapply.”
Before filing his application, Mr Amidu said: “I have examined the circumstances surrounding the government’s reluctance to enforce the judgment and orders of the court with the seriousness which the matter deserves. I share the view expressed by objective and reasonable members of the public that because the government was the 1st defendant/respondent against whom the Supreme Court made declarations of unconstitutional conduct in paying the judgment debt to Alfred Agbesi Woyome, the government has been pretending for purely political reasons at each turn to take steps to enforce the judgment and orders of the court only to deliberately abort them.
“I agree that the government’s objective has always been to create the appearance and impression in the minds of the unsuspecting public that it is complying with the enforcement orders.
The Attorney General’s latest application to discontinue the government’s application to examine its financier, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, is one more such trick to deceive the public and obstruct the course of justice.”
In his application filed at the Supreme Court, Mr Amidu said that when the AG served its application on Mr Woyome, Mr Woyome went to “the Attorney General and the President personally, that should the order applied for by the Government for his examination not be discontinued, he [Woyome] will have no option … than to disclose truthfully and faithfully to the Court on oath, the names of all NDC and Government beneficiaries of the judgment debt”.
However, Mr Mahama told GBC’s Presidential Encounters on Wednesday that he had nothing to do with the discontinuation, saying: “…I mean, that is a practice in law, and then somebody says: ‘Hey it is the president who asked her to discontinue!’ We have people who are just willing to publish any allegation in the papers against the person of the president.”
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