President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has, through his lawyers, filed a response to the amended election petition of the flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress, John Dramani Mahama.

Henry Nana Boakye who is a spokesperson of the president’s legal team in an interview with Citi News monitored by GhanaWeb said the response was in line with a directive by the Supreme Court.

“By the natural sequence of events, once the petitioner has sought the audience of the court to make some amendments in their petition, it is only proper that the respondent also do the same by today. The Supreme Court gave an order that if you have any response to the amended petition, you should file it today,” he said.

The legal team spokesperson, however, insists that the president’s lawyers maintain its preliminary objection for the case to be dismissed.

“They do not have to waste the court’s time on these issues because the facts they have presented do not support their case,” he added.

Mr Mahama’s petition as presented to the Supreme Court on December 30, 2020, was seen to contain mistakes including, interchanging the Electoral Commission and President Akufo-Addo in one of the reliefs being sought.

Source: Ghanaweb

A member of John Mahama’s legal team Dr Abdul Baasit Bamba has described the seven-members panel to hear the 2020 election petition as unfair and unbalanced.

He insists senior judges were not made part of the panel but rather judges who were mainly appointed by New Patriotic Party (NPP) governments.

The seven-member panel hearing the matter includes Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah, Yaw Appau, Marful Sau, Nene Amegatcher, Prof. Ashie Kotey, Mariama Owusu and Gertrude Torkonoo.

The Chief Justice was appointed to the Supreme Court by the NPP’s John Agyekum Kufuor in 2008 and elevated as Chief Justice in 2020 by President Akufo-Addo.

He was part of the judges during the 2012/13 petition and in his ruling called for fresh elections to be organized since the polls were fraught with irregularities and statutory violations that have been proven.

Justice Yaw Appau was appointed to the Supreme Court by the NDC’s John Mahama in June 2015.

One of the most recent public interest cases he participated in is the Case filed by the AG asking that the court sets aside an injunction granted against the gazetting of John Amewu as Hohoe MP.

He was actually the Presiding Judge and the court ruled 5-0 that the Judge erred in granting the injunction.

Justice Appau was also part of the panel that heard the case filed by Prof Kwaku Asare challenging the monopoly of the Ghana School of Law.

He agreed with his colleagues in dismissing this case.

Justice Marful Sau was appointed to the Supreme Court in July 2018 by President Akufo-Addo. He was previously a Court of Appeal judge.

He was also part of the panel in the SALL case at the Supreme Court mentioned earlier and the Ghana School of Law case and also agreed with his other colleagues.

Justice Marful Sau participated in the voters register case prior to the 2020 elections and agreed with his colleagues that the EC can compile a new register ahead of the polls.

He was also part of the case that challenged the eligibility of Martin Amidu as a Special Prosecutor.

Justice Sau agreed with the majority opinion that Mr. Amidu was eligible to hold office.

Again, he participated in the National Cathedral case and agreed with his colleagues that the decision to build the cathedral was in tune with the social and political objectives of the constitution.

Justice Nene Amegatcher was appointed as a Justice in July 2018 by President Akufo-Addo. Prior to that, he was a Private Legal Practitioner.

He participated in the following cases; Amidu’s eligibility, Ghana School of Law monopoly, and the EC voters register compilation.

In all these cases, he agreed with his colleagues mostly unanimously in dismissing it or with the majority opinion.

Justice Prof Ashie Kotey joined the Supreme Court in July 2018. He was part of the EC voters’ register case, and the Amidu eligibility case.

In both matters he agreed with his colleagues.

Justice Mariama Owusu joined the Supreme Court in December 2019 and was part of the voters register case as well.

She agreed with her colleagues.

Justice Gertrude Torkonoo joined the Supreme Court in December 2019 and was part of the SALL case that unanimously held that the High Court judge erred in granting the injunction against Amewu.

Speaking to Mamavi Owusu Aboagye on the AM Show on JoyNews, Dr Aziz Bamba said Mr Mahama’s legal team deserves some answers even on why the Chief Justice has decided to settle on 7 Judges instead of 9 as happened in the 2012 election petition.

He also said it would have been better if other experienced Judges at the Apex Court had been placed on the panel.

But a member of the President’s legal team, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah took exception to the attack on the panel.

He described Dr. Bamba’s assertions as bogus and geared at embarrassing the Judges.

He insisted this claim together with the allegation of bribery levelled by Asawaase MP Muntaka Mubarak is part of a grand scheme to cause disaffection for the court because the NDC knows it does not have a strong case.

Source: AdomOnline

The Supreme Court sat today, January 14, 2021, for the first time, on the election petition as filed by National Democratic Congress (NDC) Flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama.

The case was presided over by a seven-member panel of judges headed by the Chief Justice, Kwesi Aning Yeboah. The other members were Gertrude Torkornoo, Samuel Marful-Sau, Nii Ashie Kotey, Mariama Owusu, and Nene Abayateye Ofoe Amegatcher.

The first sitting was a short one, mainly with two issues to be looked at by the court.

The first was the application for live transmission of the court’s proceedings and the second, a motion filed by the petitioner, John Mahama, for an amendment of initial processes filed to the Supreme Court.

The application for a live telecast of proceedings was granted by the court. Prof. Nii Kotey noted that the court had already independently considered the motion and made arrangements for same. It, therefore, concluded that the Election Petition case will be broadcast, pending the court’s considerations and arrangements.

The second was a motion for the amendment of the petition filed by Mr. Mahama, which contained some errors which translated that the petition was for a rerun between the NDC candidate and the 1st Respondent; the Electoral Commission.

The motion for an amendment which was moved by Legal Representative for Mr. Mahama, Tsatsu Tsikata was opposed by Counsel for the Electoral Commission; Justin Amenuvor, and Lawyers for Akufo-Addo who argued that even the motion for the amendment was fraught with errors.

The reaction to this was a question from one of the sitting judges who asked if they had never made mistakes.

After this, the judges retired briefly to consider the motion for amendment after which they agreed and granted. This means lawyers now have the go-ahead to make amendments to the originating processes.

Source: GhanaWeb