The Supreme Court building in Accra
Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Friday January 11, 2013
Justice William Atuguba appeared incensed
yesterday when a petition challenging the election of President John Dramani
Mahama filed by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) commenced at the
Supreme Court in Accra.
He was presiding over a nine-member panel to
decide whether or not the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) should be
joined in the matter before the main petition could be heard.
Just as the NDC legal team led by Tsatsu Tsikata
was to move the motion for joinder, Philip Addison lead counsel for the NPP’s
petitioners said before the motion was moved, they were raising an objection.
Mr. Addison prayed the court to allow the issues
they seek to raise be heard in chambers instead of in open court.
It later turned out that the objection had to do
with the composition of the bench and sources said the NPP was concerned
because they were not happy with Justice Atuguba being a member of the panel.
Initially the NDC team together with Tony Lithur
and his team who are representing President Mahama as the first respondent in
the petition did not want the objection to be heard in chambers but the EC
legal team associated itself with the NPP’s position to hear the objection in
chambers.
As the argument ensued, the court decided that it
was capable of hearing the objection in chambers and if there was the need to
make it public, the court would do so.
The court then asked the NPP to file a motion
formally to challenge the composition of the bench before adjourning the case
sine die.
Anger
It was in the process of argument over whether or
not the objection should be heard in chambers that Justice Atuguba cut in to
say he had some observations to make.
He said “I am concerned that there should be at
all times a very strong and truly independent judiciary.
“The health of the country must be preserved; if
we don’t have strong judiciary we will be gambling with the destiny of this
country.”
He said if that happens, he would not be part of
it and added, “I don’t think my colleagues would also be part of it.”
“Ghana is a very solid country but it is breaking
down because principles are being chopped down almost to pedestrian level.
“The Court must be strong and truly
independent. The health of [our] country depends on us," he said in anger.
He added that “courts are there for the public and
the judges are supposed to be public servants and with the exception that a
matter if gravely confidential, it has to be heard in public”.
Explanation
After the proceedings, both the NDC and NPP
officials attempted to explain the objection to the journalists at the court’s
premises.
Nana Ato Dadzie, a former Chief of Staff in the
Rawlings era disclosed that though no judge’s name has been mentioned so far,
it was obvious that the NPP lawyers were referring to Justice Atuguba because
they have already made it public through some radio stations that they were
going to object to him being part of the panel.
He speculated that the NPP were making this
argument on grounds that Justice Atuguba is related to Dr. Raymond Atuguba, the
newly appointed Executive Secretary to the President and therefore, his
presence on the bench could influence the decision of the court.
Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, NDC General Secretary also
said that they did not know the main reasons why the lawyers were objecting to
Justice Atuguba presiding and therefore would wait for them to file their
reasons.
He however observed that this was going to delay
the process saying “unless this matter is determined we cannot go into our
application for joinder and unless our application for joinder is determined we
cannot go into the main issue about their challenge to election result.”
He added “So am happy that if they are the cause
of delay they cannot turn round to be blaming the judiciary”.
When asked if he saw the case dragging on for a
long time Asiedu Nketia answered that ‘I don’t know, I am not a lawyer, anytime
am invited I will appear but that does not stop government business from going
on.”
NPP General Secretary Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie aka Sir
John said that the matter they wanted to be heard in chambers concerned one of
the Justices who in his own interest needed to recuse himself from the panel.
Sir John failed to mention the reason but said
they were prepared to bring formal application as ordered by the court to state
their reasons saying “once a formal motion comes in you will know the nature of
the problems that we have”.
Sir John appeared to have lifted the lid on the
judge in question when he said “his demeanor in court today showed us that he
knew that something was wrong in his sitting on the matter. It is not for me to
tell him to go,” and it was a direct response to what Justice Atuguba had said
in the courtroom.
He said that it was wrong for a judge sitting in
the case to think that a simple application being made will bring the whole
country on its knees.
“I think that it is wrong and I don’t know whether
he was already privy to the issue counsel for the petitioner were going to
make”.
The court action was initiated on December 28,
2012 by the NPP presidential candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, his running mate Dr.
Mahamudu Bawumia and the party’s Chairman Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey as the
petitioners.
President
Mahama, in his personal capacity as presidential candidate of the NDC and the
EC, the body that supervised the December general elections have been cited as
respondents in the suit.
The
Petitioners are praying that the highest court of the land to declare that
“John Dramani Mahama was not validly elected president of the Republic of
Ghana.”
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