Atuguba yells at Sir John: Who instructed you to come here!

Justice William Atuguba has passionately condemned a powerless Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie over his contemptuous description of him as a voddoo god among other judges.

He charged at him, shouting “who has instructed you to come to us”.

The NPP General Secretary, popularly known as ‘Sir John’ and a party communicator, Hopeson Adorye, are in the Supreme Court Wednesday, after they made remarks the judges deemed contemptuous to the ongoing election petition before them.

Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie initially denied that the Justices were referring to him when they summoned a ‘Sir John’.

But after a written summons, Sir John together with Adorye made an appearance before the judges.

Their lawyer, Ayikoi Otoo who was a former Attorney General under the Kufuor administration made a passionate plea for the judges to temper justice with mercy.

He said today is his 59th birthday, and the only birthday gift the judges can give is to allow the contemnors to go free.

But Atuguba condemned the posture of Sir John whom he says appears lax and casual in court and said the kind of political game played by politicians in Ghana has serious repercussions for the State.

He said politicians have disabled law enforcement agencies because of the power they have allotted to themselves and it is up to the judiciary to clamp down on political bigotry.

“If we don’t we will be letting the State down,” he said.

He could not fathom why two people should die because of elections and stated that a mere election process for 275 MPs and a handful of presidential candidates ought not to threaten the peace in the country.

He described Sir John's utterances as amounting to "illegal political galamsey" in reference to illegal mining that is plaguing the country.

He said after the pomposity shown by the NPP General Secretary he wanted him to demonstrate the source of his power.

The court has risen to consider the NPP scribe’s fate.