SIR JOHN IN TROUBLE

Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie aka Sir John, General Secretary of NPP

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday July 9, 2012

The nine-member Supreme Court justices hearing the Presidential Election Petition say they are investigating Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie aka Sir John, General Secretary of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) and another for contempt.

Justice William Atuguba, president of the panel said yesterday that The Enquirer, a private newspaper has published that Sir John reportedly made statement that the court deems was contemptuous in the ongoing proceedings.

Even though Justice Atuguba did not give details of Sir John’s offence, he said the judges were going to “call for the tape and advise ourselves accordingly.”

He also mentioned that another person whose name the court did not mention, had made comments to the effect that they were going to cut off the heads of NDC supporters if Supreme Court declared President Mahama winner.

The statement was reportedly made by a member of the NPP communication team, Hopeson Adorye in reaction to a similar one made by a member of the NDC communication team, Gabby Asumin, and published by The Post, a newspaper aligned to the NDC.

“Before we proceed, we will like to appeal to the general public to desist from causing us the pain of having to summon people here. It is not a pleasant thing to proceed adversely against somebody, it causes us some discomfort but the duty too is there and the implications of failing to fulfill that duty can be very grief but we don’t want to be moved too much,” the presiding judge said.

“Subsequent to the action we took from the inaugural day of our sanctions, we proceeded with moderations, raised the temperature a bit and yet more terrible are coming. Some of the publications we have seen can be contempt but we choose to let those that are not too brief to pass otherwise many people will suffer, but there was a publication in the Enquirer front page and then some tape being played over the radio and all sort of things. In the course of time, we will deal with that,” the judge said.

“There is another one that say ‘we shall cut the heads of NDC supporters if Supreme Court declares President Mahama winner’ and all sort of things. After we had dealt with somebody who made similar utterances, this type of daring, I don’t know,” Justice Atuguba lamented.

 “Speaking for myself I think that there is nothing to be gained by championing extremist ideas of liberty and that is what some probably feel that falls within the category of democratic right, extremist rights to insult, to foster statements that can engender all sorts of bad feelings within the society that can erupt into chaos and all that so please let us be moderate.

“The limitations are there and people feel that the right to free speech, freedom of the media must be sustained without upholding the limitations there too. What kind of posturing too is this? The publication in the Enquirer and the tape I was referring to concerns a person going by the description Sir John. I understand he comes to this court. We don’t know these people, why should we have to grapple with them in terms of our contempt powers.

“If we take action and others are provocative and we don’t then it looks lopsided and we don’t want that. We have called for the tape and we will advise ourselves accordingly,” the presiding judge groaned.

Sir John Cautions NPP

Ahead of the judges pronouncements, the NPP General Secretary has cautioned his party members and the general public to desist from using words that can undermine the authority of the Court.

Mr Owusu-Afriyie, said in a statement that it was for this reason that he commissioned "comprehensive guidelines on how not to fall foul of contempt of the Court for the benefit of his party communicators, members and the general public."

He said he instructed the NPP Communications Directorate to release the guidelines to the general public, "so that even the NDC may benefit from it. It is not in our collective interest that things are said from any side that can cause disaffection for the Court, undermine their authority and give any citizen the false impression that we have a choice whether or not to accept the decision of the Court."

Sir John thanked the Justice William Atuguba court for its "patience and understanding. But, the Court has also showed to all of us that it can also bite and has done so and will do more if provoked."

Sir John says several things were said in the past, before the presiding judge gave the final "touchline" warning on Monday, 24^th June 2013.

"There is no excuse for any of us, including me, to defy this supreme order. It is for the sake of the peace and stability of the only nation we have, Ghana, that the nine justices have decided to draw the line. We should respect them for that and the best form of respect we can show is to abide by their order that we must mind our language."

He stressed, this petition of Nana Akufo-Addo, his Vice and our Chairman challenging the validity of the EC declaring John Mahama the winner of the 2012 election “is crucial to Ghana's destiny. We must therefore act responsibly and allow the lawyers and judges to do the work."

He added, "This case will not be won by a propaganda jury. This case is about evidence and not who can threaten judges, who can sweet-promise his party supporters to expect victory. It is about who has the evidence. Pure and simple and that is why we are in Court."