All set for Afoko, NPP case on May 9
All is set for the trial of the case between the embattled National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Paul Afoko, and the NPP after the Human Rights Court last Wednesday fixed May 9, 2016, as the date for the commencement of the trial.
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This was after the pre-trial proceedings were completed at the court’s sitting last Wednesday.
Apart from May 9, the court, presided over by Mr Anthony Yeboah, also fixed May 12, 13, 17, 18 and 19, 2016 as the subsequent dates that the trial would be heard.
Suit
Mr Afoko went to court in December, last year to challenge the constitutionality of his suspension.
Joined to the suit are the NPP and its Acting Chairman, Mr Freddie Blay.
Exhibits
When the case was called last Wednesday, Counsel for the NPP, Mr Godfred Dame, raised an objection to four of the exhibits that were tendered in as evidence by Afoko’s legal team.
The said exhibits were certain petitions Afoko sent to the party challenging his suspension.
According to Mr Dame, the exhibits were not relevant to the case and should, therefore, be expunged.
The court agreed with counsel’s argument and expunged the four exhibits, stating that indeed the four exhibits did not relate to any fact in the pleadings submitted by the plaintiff.
Packed court
The suit, since its inception, has always attracted many people and last Wednesday’s sitting was not different.
The court was supposed to hear the case at 12 p.m. but as at 11 a.m., all the chairs in the courtroom had been occupied and by 12 p.m., the people standing to witness the hearing were more than those sitting.
Some of the notable faces in the court were the plaintiff, Mr Paul Afoko; Professor Mike Oquaye, a former Minister of Communications; Mr CK Tedem, the Chairman of the NPP’s Council of Elders; Sheik I.C Quaye, a former Greater Accra Regional Minister, and Mr Sammy Crabbe, the suspended 2nd National Chairman of the NPP.
