Election petition: I’m not one of the lawyers who think they know better than the court - Akoto Ampaw
- According to him, he is a humble servant of the court, and that he would never challenge its authority
- The president’s legal team have also described as worrying suggestions that Tsatsu Tsikata is the only one who knows the law
- The claim was reportedly made after the dismissal of the former president’s application to reopen his case
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Lawyer Akoto Ampaw on Thursday, February 18, 2021, assured the judges hearing the ongoing 2020 election petition trial that he would carry himself as the absolute repository of the law.
“…I am not one of the lawyers who think that they know better than the court,” the lead counsel for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the second respondent, in the trial stated.
Source: Facebook
He made the comment when one of the justices hearing the case, Gertrude Torkornoo, asked him if he was ordering the court on what to do.
The communication team of the president’s legal team has expressed dismay over what it described as “troubling” belief by its counterparts, the team of the petitioner, John Dramani Mahama that Tsatsu Tsikata is brighter than all the justices hearing the case.
“…how can it be that the petitioner’s communication team…argues that the seven justices or the nine justices are always wrong in law and only Mr. Tsikata is the one who understands the law, knows the law and is therefore always right?” Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, a member of the president’s communication team wondered.
“It cannot be,” he thundered.
The comments by the Information Minister-designate came on the back of accusations that the court had a predetermined agenda against the petitioner.
Meanwhile, a pro-National Democratic Congress (NDC) think tank slammed the former president for failing to adduce enough evidence to prove his case beyond reasonability.
The NDC flagbearer in the 2020 general elections petitioned the Supreme Court to order a second round of the December 7, election.
According to him, the votes obtained by NPP’s candidate, President Nana Akufo-Addo, and himself in the December 7, election as declared by the EC Chair were not enough for a candidate to be declared the winner.
The Executive Director of Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), Mensah Thompson, however, believed the former president and his legal team failed woefully in proving their case in court.
“The inadequate substance of evidence in the petitioner’s case makes it easier for the Supreme Court judges to dismiss John Mahama’s case,” Thompson reportedly told Akoma FM.
He said the burden of proof lies on the former president to present substantive evidence “to shift the burden of proof to the respondents to come out and issue their witnesses to banter in court”.
In a Facebook post sighted by YEN.com.gh, Thompson further questioned the decision by the former president not to add several discoveries which featured in a viral video that got everyone questioning the integrity of the elections based on analysis by a biostatistician.
“Fast forward a few weeks later, you went to Court and the out of the 5 witnesses you chose to submit to the Court, none included the biostatistician who you contracted to work on the election results analysis,” he stated.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
