The Supreme Court has set January 4, 2021 to hear a case filed by Deputy Attorney General against a Ho High Court’s injunction on the Electoral Commission from gazetting John Peter Amewu as MP-elect for Hohoe Constituency.
This was after the court granted Deputy AG, Godfred Yeboah Dame’s prayer for the court to hear the case as soon as possible before January 7, 2021.
Mr. Dame in his request told the five-member panel of the court presided over by Justice Yaw Appau that the case affects the rights of the residents of Hohoe Constituency to have an MP and the composition of the next parliament.
Tsatsu Tsikata, lawyer for the applicants at the High Court, although not served with the application urged the court to hear him which Mr. Dame did not oppose to.
Mr. Tsikata urged the court to hear the case early and when the court suggested January 4, he prayed for a date earlier than that.
The court, however, settled on January 4, noting that January 1 was a statutory holiday.
The court then ordered Mr. Tsikata to file his response to the Attorney General’s case by 12 noon of December 31.
The AG’s office can respond to the issues Mr. Tsikata raises by close of day on December 31.
Injunction
A Ho High Court presided over by Justice George Buadi on December 23,2020 granted an interim injunction aimed at restraining the Electoral Commission from gazetting John Peter Amewu as MP for Hohoe in the Volta Region.
The injunction was after an ex parte application was presented before the court by lawyer for some residents who claimed to be from the Hohoe Constituency.
Lawyer of the applicants, Tsatsu Tsikata, who argued for the ex parte motion, said the injunction was necessary because his clients who hailed from towns within the Hohoe constituency were prevented from voting in the parliamentary elections that saw John Peter Amewu elected as Member of Parliament for Hohoe.
Objection
But the AG’s office went to the Supreme Court challenging the decision and argues that the orders of the court presided over by Justice George Buadi constitute a “flagrant abuse of the process of the court”.
The suit argues that the High Court has no jurisdiction under Article 33 of the Constitution and Order 67 of the High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2004, C. I. 47 to consider, determine or grant remedies in a matter of the nature of a parliamentary election petition, constitutionally required to be instituted under Article 99 of the Constitution and Section 16 of Representation of the People’s Law, 1992 (PNDCL 284).
The AG argues that “the wrongful assumption of jurisdiction by the court below and the orders made in consequence thereof, apart from being a patent error on the face of the record, portend a recipe for constitutional chaos. A possible consequence is that a part of the Hohoe constituency will be in the Volta Region, and another part in the Oti Region, contrary to the express prohibition in article 47(2) of the Constitution and as interpreted by this Court already.”
The suit is seeking an order of certiorari directed at the Ho High Court to bring into the Supreme Court for the purpose of being quashed the orders of the Court dated 23rd December, 2020.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak