Akufo-Addo lawyers wasted whole of Friday with objections to Rojo statement – Baba Jamal

The whole of the Supreme Court’s time in the ongoing election petition was wasted on Friday, 5 February 2021, by Akufo-Addo's lawyers, one of the spokespersons for NDC's lawyers has said.

According to Baba Jamal, the President’s legal team did exactly what they have been accusing Mr. Mahama’s team of that is, using technicalities to delay the hearing of the petition.

The President’s legal team, led by Mr. Akoto Ampaw, prayed the court to strike out 23 paragraphs from Mr. Mettle-Nunoo’s 32-paragraph statement.

MrAmpaw argued in court that paragraphs 4 (part), 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15 (part), 16, 17 (part), 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 29, 30, 31, 25, and 26 were either not based on the pleadings of the petitioner, bordered on issues of authenticity, which had already been ruled on by the court, or sought to “introduce new evidence through the backdoor”.

Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata, lead counsel for former President Mahama, the petitioner, however, argued that all the paragraphs were relevant to arriving at the truth.

After arguments from both sides, the court struck out 5 of the 23 paragraphs objected to by the President’s team.

“So, in effect, apart from paragraphs 4, 5, 6, 7 and 18, the rest of the paragraphs remain”, Chief Justice Anin Yeboah read out in court.

“…The remaining paragraphs in the witness statement are maintained”, he said, adding: “The petition is hereby adjourned to Monday, 8 February 2021 for cross-examination of PW3”.

Speaking on ClassFM’s current affairs programme ‘The Watchdog’ on Saturday, 6 February 2021, Mr Jamal told host Eugene Bawelle that: “When we started this case and we were filing some preliminary applications, the propaganda or the accusation that came from our opponents was that we are delaying the processes and for that matter we don’t the case to go on and we are using technicalities to waste the time of the court”.