The spokesperson for the legal team of the petitioner, Mr. Dominic Ayine, has intimated that, the Supreme Court’s decision to reduce all their petitions into a single case has caused him to believe it is a predetermined agenda to rule against the petition.
Speaking during a press conference after court session today, February ,16, 2021, he described the situation as a rather unfortunate one.
“It is not true that there is only one issue that needs to be determined in this matter. I am surprised that the Supreme Court itself having set down five key issues to be determined is now reducing the issue to one, which is whether the extent to which the evidence that we have shows that no one got more than 50% of the votes in accordance with Article 63 of the Constitution.
Mr. Ayine said
“We have made it abundantly clear in the petition that, there were a number of infractions we are contesting even the constitutionality of the declaration that was made. And to reduce the petition to a single-issue petition is rather unfortunate and smack of a predetermined agenda to rule against the petition in this matter.”
He further described the Court’s ruling as one that has done a great disservice to the nation since Ghanaians were mainly following the petition due to their interest in knowing the truth. He said the country should be worried that a public officer like the EC Chairperson, Jean Mensa, is being prevented from rendering account of her stewardship during the election.
“We think that the court by this decision has not done the people of this country a great service, in the sense that Ghanaians are interested in knowing the truth. The justices today have not given us a reason to believe that they want the people of this country to know the truth about what happened…why figures kept changing from 9th December.”
Mr Ayine said
Mr. Ayine posited that, the court saying the petitioner’s legal team were bound by law to make available the evidence for it to see before it allowing them reopen their case is a legally problematic proposition.
The Supreme Court today, in a unanimous decision, ruled out the petitioner’s legal teams’ attempt to let the EC boss Jean Mensa, testify in the witness box.
Reading out the court’s ruling, Chief Justice Anin Yeboah said the application to re-open the case was unknown in the country especially with regards to the current petition.
The court also said it was baffled by the use of the term hostile witness in supporting the case of the petitioner and went on to say that, a witness cannot be called a hostile or adverse witness when it has not entered the witness box.
The Court also indicated that the petitioner’s team have failed to convince the court why it should grant its requests. The court was of the view that the team has not demonstrated in any way, new evidence and the basis on which it wishes to re-open its case.
The court also maintained that the plaintiff or petitioner [John Mahama] must not rely on the evidence from the respondents [Electoral Commission and Nana Akufo-Addo] as its strength.
The hearing has been adjourned to Wednesday, February 17, 2021.
