Thursday 29th August 2013, Ghana
woke up with a cloud of uncertainty
over the entire country.
The media tagged it “Judgement
Day!”
In the days, weeks and months
leading up to the Judgement Day, the
international community had watched
with keen interest and anxiety,
following fears that aggrieved
supporters of the governing National
Democratic Congress (NDC) and the
opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP)
could plunge Ghana, a country
respected globally for her peace and
stability, into chaos.
Nine eminent Supreme Court Judges,
led by Justice William Atuguba, were
to deliver a verdict on a historical
election petition case brought by
three top NPP leaders.
The petitioners; flagbearer of the NPP
at the time, Nana Akuffo Addo, his
running mate, Dr. Mahamadu
Bawumia, and the party Chairman at
the time, Jake Obetsebi Lampetey,
had dragged the elected President,
John Dramani Mahama, and the
Electoral Commission to the court,
alleging gross electoral irregularities.
Dr. Bawumia, in the witness box on
April 28, 2013, presented to the court
in hard copy, a geographic
representation of the spread of the
“constitutional, statutory violations
and irregularities” that the petitioners
claimed affected the conduct and
outcome of the December 7, 2012
General Elections.
Ghanaians in the country and abroad
had their eyeballs firmly glued to the
screens of their television sets for
months, soaking in the sometimes
confusing legal jargons, but still
hoped to make sense of the outcome
of a “legal battle” decided, in the end
in favour of President John Dramani
Mahama.
“Pink sheet” was perhaps the
commonest noun from the entire case
whereas Dr Bawumia’s “You and I
were not there” also became a
household chorus.
The President and the two other
respondents – the Electoral
Commission and the NDC- had
denied the petitioners allegations
vehemently. The NDC legal team was
led by one of the sharpest brains in
the Ghana’s legal field, Tatsu Tsikata.
In open court, he described portions
of the the petitioners’ case as
“factually empty” and “legally
pathetic”.
“…Respectfully My Lords, we believe
that this petition has been shown to
be factually empty in terms of not
having any supportable evidence
being produced; it’s been shown to
be legally pathetic because the
claims that are being made have no
legal standing whatsoever especially
this claim about serial numbers,” he
said.
NDC joins itself to petition
Long before the Supreme Court heard
the substantive case, the nine
justices, by a unanimous decision (6
– 3) allowed the National Democratic
Congress to join the election petition
Lead counsel Tsatsu Tsikata had
insisted that the governing party
offered President John Dramani
Mahama the platform to contest for
the presidency and was thus an
interested party whose interest would
be injured if it was not allowed to
join the petition as a respondent. The
judges upheld his argument and
allowed the NDC to join the case as
the third respondent, despite strong
opposition from lawyers for the
petitioners.
One year on – Sir John
As serious as the case was, it did not
go without headline-grabbing
moments. For instance, the judges
dragged before them the General
Secretary of the NPP at the time,
Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, popularly
known as Sir John, on contempt
charges after he had called Justice
Atuguba “a hypocrite, a joker who
pampers Tsikata, and scolds
Addison.”
These strong words landed him in
trouble with the law. He was fined G
¢5,000 or serve six months
imprisonment in default by the
Supreme Court.
One year on, Sir John tells
citifmonline.com that the court was
not fair to him. “I quite remember
Tony Lithur throwing bare spit on the
floor of the Court which in my candid
opinion amounted to contempt
insascio prima and yet the Lordships
did not see anything wrong with that.
And so it was sad that statements
made outside the court for which the
NDC wanted me to be punished were
indeed punished,” he said.
Side attraction
The editor of the Searchlight
Newspaper, Ken Agyei Kuranchie, wa
sentenced to 10 days imprisonment,
having been found guilty of criminal
contempt of the Supreme Court by
the justices.
In sentencing Mr Kuranchie, Justice
Atuguba said in part: “We have no
doubt that the said statements are
made with intent by him to defy the
authority of this court and the due
administration of justice; accordingly
we find him guilty of criminal
contempt of this court and sentence
him to 10 days imprisonment.”
The Court also threw a relatively
unknown NDC foot soldier, Stephen
Atubiga, into jail for three days after
he had gone on public radio to incite
NDC supporters by saying that they
should disregard the judgement of
the Court if it went against the party.
One year on, in an interview with
citifmonline.com , Mr. Atubiga said he
still struggles to sleep at night, after
spending a few days in prison for
contempt of the highest court in the
land.
“When I look back, honestly
speaking, the apology that I rendered
to the justices was really from the
bottom of my heart. Having said that,
I mean the three days was like three
years,” he says. ]
He adds, “Since that day I have
always been in pain; I mean this is
on the dark side. Sometimes, I have
to take a thousand milligrams of
teranol PM before I am able to sleep.
The election petition process was
historic. The judges made several
recommendations for reform to the
country’s Electoral Commission in a
bid to avoid another long legal battle
in future after a national election.
Lead council for the petitioners,
Philip Addison, in an exclusive
interview with citifmonline.com, says
“One year down the line, we are still
where we started from. We have the
same team there being as recalcitrant
as ever. Afari Gyan does not listen to
anybody, he always needs a court
order to act.”
#iloveghana
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