Private Legal Practitioner and law lecturer, Justice Abdulai, has revealed that he knew the odds were against him when he filed a review application at the Supreme Court over the voting rights of Deputy Speakers presiding in Parliament.
Justice Abdulai indicated that despite putting his best foot forward to win the case, he conceded that taking such a matter to court and winning is a difficult thing to attain. He expressed that he did his best to ensure that the Supreme Court rules against the voting rights of deputy speakers and members presiding in parliament.
“A review application is one of the most difficult things to succeed in at the Supreme Court, and so I knew the odds are against me. I still moved forward with this because I believe the Supreme Court is made up of seasoned lawyers and if you make strong arguments before them, they are amenable to reviewing their previous decision. They decided otherwise and once they have decided otherwise, I think we have to move on as a nation.”
Justice Abdulai
Addressing the press today, April 26, 2022, Justice Abdulai stated that he didn’t want a situation where “posterity will question us on why we did not take the small window of opportunity” that was available to attempt a review of the decision on the 9th of March.
“We did everything that we ought to have done to get the sort of judgment that we needed, but the Supreme Court says otherwise and we all have to abide by that and live together as one nation.”
Justice Abdulai
Supreme Court dismisses review application
The Supreme Court has dismissed a review application against its decision that Deputy Speakers presiding over proceedings in Parliament can vote. In a unanimous decision today, April 26, 2022, a nine-member review panel of the court held that the review application had no merit as it failed to meet the threshold for review.
The applicant, Justice Abdulai, had argued that the Supreme Court’s judgment on March 9, 2022 contained “errors of laws which have occasioned a grave miscarriage of justice on the people of Ghana.”
In her submission against the review application, a Deputy Attorney–General, Diana Asonaba Dapaah, highlighted that the review failed to show any exceptional circumstances that had occasioned a miscarriage of justice as stipulated by the rules of court.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court chastised Justice Abdulai, for allegedly moving from one media house to the other to discuss his review application brought before the Court.
Justice Nene Amegatcher, addressing Justice Abdulai, noted that it was “wrong for you to file a process at the Supreme Court and then hop from one media house to another discussing the processes you have filed.”
Expressing his disapproval of Justice Abdulai’s media engagements, His lordship Amegatcher emphasized that “it is a wrong signal, it is a bad signal.”
The review panel was presided over by Justice Jones Dotse, had Justices Nene Amegatcher, Prof. Ashie Kotey, Mariama Owusu, Lovelace Johnson, Gertrude Torkornoo, Clemence Honyenuga, Prof. Henrietta Mensah-Bonsu, and Emmanuel Yony Kulendi.
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