[ 2021-02-17 ]

Election Petition: Discontinue case – Dafeamekpor to Mahama
Member of Parliament for South Dayi,
Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor has advised former
President John Dramani Mahama to discontinue the
election petition case at the Supreme Court.

His advice comes after the Supreme Court on
Tuesday February 17 dismissed Mr Mahama’s
application to reopen his case to enable him
subpoena the chair of the Electoral Commission
(EC) Jean Mensa.

In a tweet, Mr Dafeamekopr said “I advise that
the party files a motion for leave to discontinue
or withdraw the petition without liberty to
reapply. The NDC is clearly endangered in this
Country. ‘Justice emanates from the
People…..’ Art. 125(1).”

The apex court has yet again dismissed another
application of John Dramani Mahama.

According to the Court, the petitioner, inter
alia, has not adduced enough evidence, or an
inkling of that, to convince the bench for the
case to be re-opened.

Reading the ruling on Tuesday, February 16,
Presiding Judge Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah said
even at the time the application was filed, the
petitioner as well as the respondents had closed
their cases.

He said the petitioner is not entitled to an
application of that nature as a matter of right,
an argument he adduced through Counsel Tsatsu
Tsikata on Monday, February 15.

Justice Anin-Yeboah, who is also Ghana’s Chief
Justice, said such application can be granted by
discretion.

“That discretion is, however, one which should
be exercised per rules and with restraint as a
motion to reopen necessarily involves a balancing
of the accountability of counsel for the decisions
regarding prosecutions of this case and the
interest of justice.

“Accordingly, we weighed the propriety of
re-opening proceedings to permit additional
evidence to be led or tendered and Court will
typically consider three broad questions. Will the
evidence, if it had been presented during the
trial, have had any influence on the result? [The
second question is] could the evidence have been
obtained before beginning trial by the exercise of
reasonable diligence?”

In tabling his argument on Monday, February 15 for
the bench to grant his application for the case to
be re-opened, Mr Tsikata said the Chair of the
First Respondent, Jean Adukwei Mensa, would have
been subpoenaed to appear as a hostile witness.

This the Court found “baffling”, according to
Justice Anin-Yeboah.

He, therefore, concluded: “We find no merit or
so why the petitioner in his application to reopen
his case for the sole purpose of compelling his
adversaries’ intended witness to testify through
a subpoena without indicating the sort of urgency
he intends to solicit from the said witness and
how that evidence is going to help the Court in
resolving the dispute before us.

“We accordingly refuse the application and
proceed without any hesitation to dismiss it.”

Source - 3 News

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