Election Petition: Akufo-Addo’s lawyers to file witness statements today
Lawyers for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in the election petition case say they will later today submit their witness statements regardless of the actions of the petitioner, John Dramani Mahama.
Mr. Mahama was ordered to submit his witness statement on Thursday and has since not filed with the accompanying affidavits.
He has however served notice requesting a stay of proceedings until the Supreme Court hears his review application of the ruling on his interrogatories.
In an interview with Citi News, one of the spokespersons for the President, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah indicated that the legal team will file an affidavit in opposition to the application for stay of execution.
“The President’s lawyers intend to go ahead and file witness statements on his behalf in accordance with the timelines given by the court. It has come to our attention that they have filed an application for review of one of the rulings of the court, and we will most likely file an affidavit in opposition to that.”
Motion for review
John Mahama, through his lawyers earlier this week filed a motion at the court seeking a review of the Supreme Court’s ruling denying him the opportunity to put some 12 direct questions [interrogatories] to the Electoral Commission, which he argued would have helped narrow down the issues for trial.
The court in dismissing the application said the petitioner failed to convince the court on the relevance of the questions and as such, denied the petitioner the application.
“The court is of the opinion that the crucial issue of relevancy has not been established in this application…We accordingly refuse to grant the application and same is accordingly dismissed,” portions of the ruling by the seven-member panel of Justices hearing the case stated.
Mr. Mahama has therefore filed a fresh application, seeking to halt the election petition until the Supreme Court reviews its ruling.
Some of the information Mahama’s legal team led by Tsatsu Tsikata was seeking answers to, included, the manner in which the results of the 2020 presidential polls were transmitted and the level of involvement of the National Communications Authority (NCA) in the process.
