ATUGUBA SUMMONS SIR JOHN

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Saturday, August 10, 2013

SUPREME Court has officially summoned two New Patriotic Party (NPP) stalwarts for allegedly making comments in relation to the pending Presidential Election Petition, which the court deemed scandalous.

They are the NPP General Secretary Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie aka Sir John and the

Director of Operations of Young Patriots, a pro NPP youth group, Hopeson Adorye.

The court hearing the election petition, presided over by Justice William Atuguba, issued the summons letters to the two NPP members for their alleged contemptuous comments yesterday, asking them to appear before the justices on Wednesday.

Three people had already appeared before the Lord Justices for the same charge, for which two, including a journalist, Ken Agyei Kuranchie, were convicted to various jailed terms.

Justice Atuguba, president of the nine-member panel hearing the petition on Monday July 8, 2013, before actual proceedings commenced, announced that the court was going to investigate fresh allegations that some people including NPP General Secretary Sir John had made comments that were prejudicial to the proceedings.

“We are appealing to the public to desist from causing us the pain of having to summon people here,” he said.

Justice Atuguba did not mention the ‘another’ person’s name but said the judges would see to the two issues at the appropriate time.

Later, sources said it was the Young Patriots Operations Director, Hopeson Adorye, that the court referred to alongside Sir John.

Just as everybody thought the issue had been laid to rest, the two summons were issued through the court’s Acting Registrar James Mensah late Friday, ordering Sir John and Hopeson to appear before the court on Wednesday August 14, 2013 to explain why they should not be sent to prison for contempt.

In the case of Sir John, the summons quoted copiously from a publication of pro-National Democratic Congress (NDC) newspaper The Enquirer issue of Friday July 5, 2013 with a headline: “Sir John Descends on Justice Atuguba… Calls him a hypocrite, A joker who pampers Tsikata, Scolds Addison.”

According to the summons, The Enquirer claimed that Sir John made the comments on Oman FM on June 24, 2013 and spoke in Twi, adding that the

NPP scribe per The Enquirer publication had described Justice Atuguba “as a hypocritical joker who pampers the counsel for the National Democratic

Congress, Tsatsu Tsikata, but habitually scolds the counsel for the NPP,” and that the judge habitually “frowned like a voodoo deity”.

The summons further quoted The Enquirer as saying that Sir John had said “Justice Atuguba, by his actions, was up to hypocritical antics that is intended to lead NPP not to get the opportunity to play a tape recording of the Electoral Commissioner, Dr Kwadwo Afari- Gyan’s voice, declaring that ‘No verification, no vote’, so that the President can win the case.”

The court therefore asked Sir John to come and “show cause why you should not be committed to prison for contempt of this court, thereby scandalizing the court, lowering the authority and credibility of this court in the eyes of the general public, and exciting hatred and ill-will towards 1st and 2^nd respondent herein.”

On the part of Hopeson, the summons quoted copiously from a publication in another pro-NDC newspaper, Daily Post, whose publication of Monday July 8, 2013, claimed that Hopeson had threatened to cut off the heads of NDC supporters.

According to the summons, the Daily Post in its headline “We shall cut the heads of NDC supporters if Supreme Court declares Prez Mahama Winner,” had attributed the quote to Hopeson.

The paper, according to the summons, again quoted Hopeson as saying on Time FM, a private radio station at Obuasi on June 26, 2013, that “the NPP will…go on a head cutting spree, cutting off the heads of NDC supporters should the Supreme Court declare President Mahama the winner.”

The summons said the NDC paper also quoted Mr. Adorye as saying that “the claim by fellow NPP activist Samuel Awuku, that the Supreme Court judges were biased and are hypocrites was an appropriate comment for which Awuku should not have apologized.”

The summons therefore asked Hopeson to come and “show cause why you should not be committed to prison for contempt of this court, thereby scandalizing the court, lowering the authority and credibility of this court in the eyes of the general public, and exciting hatred and ill-will towards 1st and 3rd respondent herein.”

As at the time of filing this report, Sir John was reported to have told Joy FM that he had just arrived from a trip abroad and was yet to be served with the summons.

He said he was consulting his lawyers to know the next line of action.

Hopeson on the other hand also told the same station that he was yet to receive any summons but made it clear that his statement was in reaction to an NDC communicator Gabby Asuming’s threat that there was going to be civil war if the court declared NPP’s Nana Akufo- Addo president.