Baffoe Bonnie 'shuts up' Addison in Court

One of the nine Justices hearing the election petition, Mr. Baffoe Bonnie, on Wednesday asked the petitioners’ lead counsel to "keep quiet" when he (Baffoe Bonnie) is talking.

Speaking in near-hyper tone with a tinge of ire, Justice Baffoe Bonnie warned Mr. Addison to mind his language when addressing the Court.

The warning came after Mr. Addison had said in open court, in anger that he neither trusted the legal teams of the respondents nor their witness.

Mr. Addison’s outburst followed a request by the Electoral Commission’s Chairman, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan to be given a day to compare the Petitioners’ print-out of what they purported to be the 2012 voters’ register with that of the Electoral Commission so as to be sure the document in question was a genuine one.

“They seem not to trust me, and they want me to trust them; I don’t trust them one bit…the document can be in the custody of the court, I will not let them take this document away”, Mr. Addison blurted out in open court, repeating: “I don’t trust them one bit”.

A female Justice firstly, followed by Justice Baffoe Bonnie, attempted intervening to calm nerves but to no avail, as Mr. Addison would not budge except to repeat his distrust for the respondents by saying: “…I do not think that I will leave it with this witness, they have been so untruthful throughout this proceedings, I don’t trust them one bit”.

Baffoe Bonnie then reprimanded Mr. Addison, who, by then, was entangled in a chat-back with the Bench, by asking him to “please listen to me; when I’m talking you have to keep quiet”.

He said:”…Whatever you say is to the Bench; if you say you don’t trust if you use any negative words, they impact negatively on the Bench, so you shouldn’t be using these words; that is clear and simple; I don’t see why you don’t get it”.

Justice Baffoe Bonnie went to ask: “…What can we be doing here if we have to throw words at each other, we can’t achieve anything; people of Ghana want the truth and justice, you see, so if you don’t trust them, there’s a way of going about it, keep it in your head”.

“This whole thing is being broadcast live; …the international community gets to know that this is the language that is used in the Ghanaian court, I mean clearly, it’s wrong”, he averred.

Mr. Addison then ripostes to the Bench by saying: “Well My Lord, I hear you except to say that far serious and stronger words have been used in this courtroom without any comment from the Bench; criminality has been used to apply to us, not a word came from anywhere”.

The President of the Bench, William Atuguba then stepped in to defend the rulings of the Court by saying: “…Its not everything that the Bench must specifically comment upon; sometimes a general statement is made that covers what has arisen”.

He also described as “unfair castigation” on the Bench, Mr. Addison’s insinuation of bias against the nine of them.

Justice Atuguba also warned that the Bench may be compelled to invoke its powers to whip the bar into line.