Whatsup News has picked up exclusive information that the auctioneer licensed to sell off the landed properties of embattled Businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome has failed in his bid to sell the properties.
In an intercepted letter to the National Security Minister on February 7, 2020, the auctioneer, Dela Akpey lamented bitterly how people were afraid to buy those properties. He consequently suggested that the State should take over the properties and use it to house National Security operatives.
“My observations during the advertisement period and days of auction are that potential buyers become cautious to buy and think there is a probability of a takeover in future. Some even fear that these houses are occultic houses,” Dela Akpey wrote in his lamentations to the National Security Minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah.
“Quite a number told me on the side that their lawyers advised them not to risk buying any property associated with Woyome.”
On March 4, 2020, Mr. Kan-Dapaah acknowledged the failure and wrote to the Attorney-General for the state to take over the properties to “obviate the need to auction” the said properties.
“The auctioneer tasked with the auctioning the properties has indicated his inability to successfully execute the task because potential buyers are afraid…In view of the above, it has been decided that the properties be surrendered to the State to obviate the need for an auction,” Kan-Dapaah wrote.
However, reliable sources close to Woyome who spoke to Whatsup News have warned that the state cannot take over the property because that will amount to varying the specific judgment for those properties to be sold.
Also, the source alleged that the Akufo Addo administration led by Deputy Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame had deliberately undervalued the properties and were planning to sell it to a “market woman” who would later sell it off cheaply to cronies to the government.
All the properties are plush properties located at up-end part of Accra, including Trassacco Valley, East Legon and Kpehe.
Mid last year, Justice Alfred Benin ordered the auctioning of the properties, following the protracted legal case involving Mr. Woyome fingered for controversially pocketing some GHC 51.2 million in judgment debt secured against the State from “financial engineering” done for the State towards infrastructural projects for the 2008 African Cup of Nations Cup (AFCON) hosted by Ghana.
Woyome reportedly did financial engineering for Waterville- a company that was given a multi-million construction contract for the 2008 tournament. That contract was cancelled by the then John Kufour administration forcing Woyome to head to court for an apparent financial injury after the then administration refused to compensate him.
In a complex web of legal tussles, Mr. Woyome secured a consent judgment when the then-Attorney General, Betty Mould Iddrissu who was defending the Ghanaian government refused to turn up in court. Woyome had initially demanded US$ 150 million but got the controversial GHC 51.2 million instead.
Whatsup News spoke to sources close to Mr. Woyome and they disclose that the properties earmarked for auctioning had been deliberately undervalued by the state and that this could be one reason why prospective buyers are jittery committing themselves to it.
Apparently, the properties were valued without input from him [Mr. Woyome] and the defunct UT Bank-the bank that had collateral on those properties.