Dr. Isidore Tuffuor, a Law Lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), has said that, the NDC’s petition to the court to stay the motion is a way to get the court to hear them out.
Speaking in an interview, he averred that, the filings by the petitioner, is for the court to stay proceedings and tackle some of the initial motions filed by the petitioner.
“So, the petitioner is bent on getting the court to hear their interrogatives. So, technically, that is what they want to do. If you want to hear us, you have to consider the interrogatives in motion before you go ahead with the proceedings of the issues and then proceed with the trials.”
Touching on the motion filed by the lawyers of the former President, John Dramani Mahama, seeking for further amendment of earlier processes, he explained that, they were seeking to review a particular paragraph to add to the motion.
“Basically, they have sat down and realised that, one or two things will have to be added to be reviewed and that is what they are seeking to do now.”
Mr John Dramani Mahama, the Petitioner in the election 2020 case, has filed a motion on notice for leave in order to file additional grounds for review application of the dismissed interrogatories.
Mr Mahama is further seeking leave to replace Paragraph 28 of the original statement of case and file supplement to his statement of case in the election petition case.
The paragraph 28 of the original statement of case stated that,
“On December 10, 2020, an unsigned Press Release of the first respondent (the Electoral Commission) claimed that it’s Chairperson, Mrs Jean Adukwei Mensa had inadvertently used the figures of 13, 433,573 for the total valid votes case is now 13, 119,460. Same is on the EC ‘s website as of 11:45 hours GMT on December 29, 2020”.
According to the Petitioner, the additional grounds “had an exceptional circumstance that support the application for review.”
The Petitioner has so far filed applications for stay of proceedings and motion for abridgement of time by the petitioner and the EC.
The petitioner also says, the Electoral Commission and President should not be prejudiced in any way if his application is granted.
Commenting on this development, the spokesperson for the 1st respondent, [Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo] and the presidential legal team, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah averred that, this were efforts by the NDC legal team to further delay the process with regards to the petition hearing which is ongoing.
He took to his social media on twitter to comment on this.
“Ahead of tomorrow’s appearance in court, JM’s legal team has filed another application at 2:30 pm today seeking to further amend earlier processes. The effect is to occasion further delays in dealing with the 5 issues in the substantive matter. It’s very unfortunate.”
