An Accra high court has dismissed the suit filed by former Minister of State and legal advisor to ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor, Mrs Vicky Bright, praying the court to declare the election of Mr Ahmed Arthur as parliamentary candidate for Okaikoi South as null and void.
Justice Daniel Mensah in his ruling stated that Ahmed Arthur did not commit fraud as claimed by Ms Bright in his nomination form for both the 2012 and 2016 primaries of the party.
Vicky Bright had sought to annul the outcome of the Okaikoi South primary arguing that the MP’s nomination form had wrong information concerning the programme he pursued at the Ghana Institute of Journalism, a claim which she stated had been upheld by the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC).
Vicky had also questioned the voter register used to organize the primary that saw the MP elected as the parliamentary candidate for Okaikoi South.
Mr Arthur had argued that following his disqualification by the NEC for supplying wrong information, he subsequently appealed against the ruling at the National Council of the party and had a ruling in his favour (that the primary be re-run).
He stated that he had wrongly stated the course of study because he didn’t have access to his certificate at the time of filing his nomination form.
In his ruling, Justice Mensah said the matter should have been heard at the constituency level before being heard by the party’s NEC.
Justice Mensah thus, opined that both the NEC and the National Council had erred but the crux of the matter was whether Mr Arthur had supplied wrong information with the aim of creating undue advantage.
Justice Mensah said once that wasn’t the case, Mr Arthur had not committed fraud as being claimed.
The judge also pointed out that the question of Mr Arthur’s educational background did not re-surface in the 2016 primary.
On the question of the voter register, Justice Mensah stated that the same register was used in the election of the flagbearer of the party and thus saw nothing wrong with it.
Speaking to Joy Fm after the ruling, the Okaikoi South MP said he felt vindicated by the ruling and called on all party members in the constituency to join his re-election bid as well as ensure that NPP flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is elected president.