Yaw Buaben Asamoa
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has debunked claims by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that seeks to imply that the Supreme Court is being “incited” by NPP gurus to cite NDC MP Dr. Dominic Ayine for contempt.
The NPP also described as false the impression that the lead counsel of the petitioner, Tsatsu Tsikata, had been subjected to attacks by Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Information Minister-designate, and Henry Nana Boakye, National Youth Organizer of NPP, and asked Ghanaians to ignore such claims.
In a rebuttal to a statement by the NDC accusing NPP lawyers of inciting the court against Dr. Ayine and also consistently attacking Mr. Tsikata, the NPP said, “It is an affront to the apex court of the land for the NDC to suggest that the venerable, experienced and learned Justices of the Supreme Court (SC), who over time have demonstrated to be independent and objective, are amenable to “INCITEMENT” by spokespersons of the second respondent.”
A statement released by the party and signed by the Director of Communications, NPP, Yaw Buaben Asamoa, also noted that the unfortunate comments from Dr. Ayine that “for the Supreme Court to reduce the petition into a single-issue petition is rather unfortunate and smacks of a predetermined agenda to rule against the petitioner in this matter…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,” were voluntarily uttered by Dr. Ayine and he was solely responsible for its consequences.
He indicated that Dr. Ayine had in the past been warned by the court for his conduct aimed at disparaging the Supreme Court.
“The suggestion that the lawyers and spokespersons of the second respondent have been attacking, insulting and belittling the lead counsel of the petitioner is plain falsehood, mischievously crafted to solicit public sympathy for the legal team of the petitioner to conceal their poor performance and evident from the dismissals of almost every major motion or application they have filed so far,” he said.
Boaben Asamoa described as regrettable the attitude of the lead counsel of the petitioner towards the bench.
“The lead counsel has been a matter of public outrage and so it is not correct to suggest that it is the lawyers or spokespersons of the second respondent that have made a case out of it,” Mr. Asamoah said.
“It is utterly shocking for the National Communications Officer of the NDC to lament and suggest that the spokespersons of the second respondent ought to show deference to seniors at the Bar when in actual fact, there hasn’t been any act of disrespect on the part of the second respondent’s team towards the petitioner’s lawyers or spokespersons.
“We encourage the NDC team to focus on explaining to their supporters why the statistics they earlier claimed were in their favour have been abandoned in court,” the statement said.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri