A private legal practitioner, Ben Tachie Antiedu has opined that there is no serious damage caused following the registration of Peter Amewu as MP-elect for Hohoe following the injunction placed in his election by the Ho High Court.
The lawyer says although it would have been reasonable for the parliamentary service to have exercised restraint, nothing is damaging about it.
The Clerk of Parliament had received a letter on 24th of December 2020 to bring his attention to orders of injunction on Peter Amewu from presenting himself to be sworn in an MP for Hohoe.
But Peter Amewu was in Parliament House the register his name as MP-elect.
Some have argued that the action by the parliamentary service was serious.
But reacting to this, the lawyer explained that the injunction was to prevent the getting but for him to register his name was not anything grave.
He said the pending case in the Supreme Court will being finality to the issue and in such cases, there would be a balance of convenience in arriving at the matter.
He said the outcome of the pending case in the apex court will decide the way forward.
The Supreme Court is today (Monday) hearing legal arguments in a case that was brought before it by the Attorney General involving the election of John Peter Amewu as MP of Hohoe.
The case before the court will determine whether or not the Energy Minister John Peter Amewu is sworn in as MP for the Hohoe constituency on January 7.
The Attorney General last week filed a motion on notice at the Supreme Court, to quash the decision of the Ho High Court, which granted an interim injunction in an ex parte application to stop the gazetting of John Peter Amewu as the MP-elect for the Hohoe Constituency.
The motion filed by the A-G is seeking an order of certiorari directed at the High Court, Ho, Volta Region, with Justice George Buadi, presiding, to bring into this Court for the purpose of being quashed the orders of the Court dated 23 December 2020 in Suit No. E12/40/2021 entitled “In the matter of an application under Article 33 of the Constitution, 1992 and order 67 of the High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2004 (C.I.47) and the Inherent Jurisdiction of the High Court between Professor Margaret Kweku, Simon Alan Opoku-Mintah, John Kwame Obompeh, Godfried Koku Fofie, Felix Quarshie, and the Electoral Commission, Wisdom Kofi Akpakli, John Peter Amewu, and The Attorney-General”.
The A-G is also seeking an order prohibiting the High Court, Ho, Volta Region from further hearing or conduct of proceedings in the said case.
The A-G is arguing that the orders of the Ho High Court dated 23 December 2020, constituted a patent error on the face of the record to the extent that they purported to confer on the applicants (interested parties herein), non-existent voting rights in respect of the Hohoe Constituency in the Volta Region.
“The interested parties have already been told by this Honoruable Court that, to the extent that C. I. 95 places their traditional areas of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe, and Lolobi in the Hohoe Constituency, same is unconstitutional. CI 95 ought to be amended in order to place the said traditional areas in the Oti Region. They ceased to be part of the Hohoe Constituency in Volta Region immediately after the Oti Region was created and they were put thereunder.
“The alleged failure of the Electoral Commission to amend CI 95 to give effect to the boundaries of the new regions, does not mean that the interested parties together with the residents of the 4 areas, can continue to assert voting rights in the Hohoe Constituency. To do so will be inconsistent with article 47(2) which prohibits a constituency from straddling two regions, and will create further constitutional chaos,” the Statement of Case noted.
“It is thus beyond doubt that the action at the High Court, Ho is a palpable abuse of the process. The wrongful assumption of jurisdiction by Justice Buadi, was a serious error apparent on the face of the record. This Court ought to exercise its supervisory jurisdiction to prevent a situation where the interested parties will, through the backdoor, surreptitiously seek to assert the right to vote in a manner which is constitutionally frowned upon.
“The interested parties’ case is borne out of mischief and an attempt to judicially sanction an unconstitutionality. It is merely a vile attempt to upset the hard-won electoral victory of the winner of the parliamentary election in Hohoe constituency through an unjustified invocation of the court’s human rights jurisdiction,” the Attorney General’s statement of the case said.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com
