Disclose judge's identity - MBG tells lawyers of NPP
The
Movement
for Better Ghana (MBG), a pro-NDC group in Kumasi has challenged
lawyers of the petitioners in the case in which some leading members of
the NPP are challenging the results of the 2012 presidential result at
the Supreme
Court to be bold to make the identity of the judge they are opposing
to sit
on the case known, if they insist the person is not Justice William Atuguba.
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It accused the NPP of a deliberate attempt to taint the image of one of the nation’s finest judges in a bid to win public sympathy in the case.
At a news conference in Kumasi Friday, the group expressed surprise as to why the NPP was so bent on winning the case at all cost.
Last Thursday, the Supreme Court adjourned sine die the application by the NDC to join the substantive case challenging the Electoral Commission's declaration of President John Dramani Mahama as winner of the presidential election.
This was after lawyers of the petitioners raised objection to the inclusion of one of the Justices sitting on the case.
While the NDC legal team insist the judge whose inclusion on the panel the NPP was opposing was Justice Atuguba, the NPP would not publicly mention the name.
But, Mr Kwasi Ofori Agyeman Boadi, the General Secretary of MBG, who addressed the media in Kumasi said, “It is a shame” that the NPP that claimed to have so much confidence in the judiciary could turn round to drag the name of the same institution in the mud.
He said if relationships were to be used as basis for objecting to the constitution of panelists there would be no one to sit on the Supreme Court in the matter.
For instance, he asked the question, “What will happen to Justice Anin Yeboah who we are told is remotely related to President Kufuor?”
“Again should the NDC accept the Chief Justice to empanel justices to sit on the case since she is an in-law of Mr Atta Akyea who is a cousin of Nana Akufo-Addo?’
Mr Boadi called on the Chief Justice not to kowtow to any machinations for the removal of Justice Atuguba.
Doing that, he said, would mean she wanted to favour the NPP in the case.
Mr Boadi expressed surprise about how an NPP Member of Parliament, Mr Titus Glover, got wind that Justice Atuguba was going to be a member of the panel to hear the motion.
“Who leaked that information to Mr Glover? He questioned, stressing that it was important for transparency to prevail in the handling of the case.
“If we treat constitutional institutions the manner the NPP is doing, we cannot have our democracy functioning,” Mr Boadi said.
Story by Kwame Asare Boadu