A member of the legal team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Abraham Amaliba, has said that former President John Dramani Mahama has not received any lawsuit challenging his candidacy for the 2024 elections.
Court documents leaked on social media indicated that the former president, who was recently elected by the NDC to be its candidate for the 2024 presidential elections, had been sued over his eligibility to contest in the next presidential election.
The suit was filed by one Kenneth Kwabena Agyei Kuranchie, who wants the Supreme Court of Ghana to disqualify the former president from contesting as a flagbearer of a political party or the presidency in the future.
According to him, the constitution through Article 66 (1) of the 1992 Constitution indicates that a person seeking a second presidential term must be a sitting president but former President Mahama is seeking to recontest after being out of office for about 8 years.
Reacting to this in an interview on Metro TV, on Wednesday, June 13, 2023, lawyer Amaliba said that the suit is ‘much ado about nothing’.
According to him, the suit is just to divert the attention of Ghanaians from the current economic hardship in the country and his being championed by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.
“The former president has not been served and once serving is personal, they would have to take steps to serve him. What I can tell you is that absolutely nothing can stop the former president from contesting in the 2024 elections.
“This whole suit is a diversionary tactic. There is nowhere in the constitution that says that the former president cannot stand. I see this suit as legal gymnastics, I see this suit as a legal somersault… to stop the former president from contesting but nothing stops him from contesting,” he said.
He added that the NDC and the former president are not worried about the suit and are currently focused on winning the upcoming Assin North by-election.
