A five-member Supreme Court panel presided over by Justice Jones Dotse has unanimously declared as unconstitutional an application by embattled businessman, Alfred Woyome, seeking to Stop Ghana’s Apex court from proceeding with an oral examination of him over the GHC51 million judgment debt illegally paid to him in 2011 by the state.
At the last court sitting prior to today’s decision, the Deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Dame, described the Application by the embattled businessman to the Supreme Court seeking a stay of proceedings due to the pendency of a case he has submitted to the African Court of People and Human Rights (ACPHR), as an affront to the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.
Lawyer for Mr. Woyome, Osafo Boaben on the other hand, argued that the Supreme Court ought to stay all proceedings in Ghana until the ACHPR delivered its ruling in respect of the Application before it.
The Supreme Court in its Judgement stated however that the ACHPR cannot exercise jurisdiction over it and that the Constitutional Court of Ghana is not an Appellate Court to any other court.
On this ground, Mr. Woyome’s application was dismissed in its entirety. The decision of the five-member Supreme Court panel has paved way for the oral examination of Mr Woyome to continue before the single Supreme Court Judge, Justice Alfred Benin. A new date is expected to be fixed by the Registrar of the Supreme Court for hearing to resume.
The ruling by the Supreme Court came in the wake of an order by the ACHPR to Ghana to suspend all efforts aimed at retrieving the GHS51 million judgment debt paid Mr. Woyome until it determines an appeal filed by the businessman.
The Tanzania-based court in a unanimous ruling on November 24, instructed Ghana to suspend the seizure of any property belonging to Mr. Woyome and “take all appropriate measures to maintain the status quo and avoid the property being sold’’ until the case was determined.
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