A five-member panel presided over by Chief Justice Anin Yeboah has directed the government to purchase properties belonging to the embattled businessman, Alfred Agbesi Woyome.
The court believed it would be prudent to purchase rather than taking ownership.
At the last hearing, the Deputy Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, urged the court to permit the state to take ownership.
This was after the auctioneer had failed to sell the said properties to offset the GHc 51.2m debt owed by Woyome.
The auctioneer’s inability to sell the properties was due to fears that the auctioned properties may be given back to the embattled businessman in the future.
The Deputy Attorney General subsequently withdrew the application for the state to take ownership after the court directed the state to purchase the properties.
The sale of the properties was ordered by the Supreme Court in June 2019. The selected auctioneer advertised the sale of three earmarked properties in the national dailies.
It identified two executive residential properties at Trassaco Valley off the Spintex road in Accra and another property, No: 372/2 off Cocan Crescent residential area Kpehe on Accra.
The properties initially valued at GH¢20m were to be sold off by December 31, 2019.
But potential buyers are worried about owning politically-tainted properties.
In December last year, Woyome obtained a Supreme Court order halting the sale of his properties to defray some GH¢47.2 million debt to the state.
The auctioning of one of three identified properties was scheduled to begin that month.
But the businessman has filed for a stay of execution at the Supreme Court, which has also been served on the auctioneer.
On June 2, the Chief Justice, Kwasi Annin Yeboah, urged embattled businessman, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, to settle his GH₵47.2million debt owed the state after he was wrongly paid monies in 2009.
“If you have the money, pay for your properties to be released back to you,” he said after Woyome tried to interrupt the Chief Justice during a hearing.
