Martin Amidu triumphs in ISOFOTON case – Supreme Court orders refund of state money

Ghana’s highest court, the Supreme Court, has ordered Spanish energy company ISOFOTON SA to refund to the Government of Ghana the cedi equivalent of $325,472 it received as judgement debt.

The money is to be repaid with interest from March 2011 to the date of final payment, the court ordered in a Friday ruling, according to Daily Graphic’s Court Correspondent, Mabel Aku Baneseh.

The rulling follows an application by former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Martin Amidu, who said the company had no basis to make the claims because it had no contract with the government of Ghana the breach of which should result in the payment of any judgement debt.

ISOFOTON is involved in designing, manufacturing and supplying Solar Energy products.

The Supreme Court in its Friday ruling said the High Court presided by Justice Ernest Obimpeh had no jurisdiction in determining the case and should have referred the matter to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court also referred the conduct of lawyers for ISOFOTON to the General Legal Council. It however struck out ISOFOTON’s agent Anane Adjei Forson’s name from the suit because he was not the proper person to be sued.

Isofoton was demanding judgement debt of $1.3 million for which the government had started paying in instalment but the Supreme Court, in March 2013 ordered the government to stop further payments until the case was determined.

Source: Daily Graphic