I'm not an NPP mole - NDC flagbearer aspirant

Lawyer and NDC flagbearer aspirant, Elikplim Agbemava has downplayed rumours that he might be an infiltrator within the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

In August 2016, Mr. Agbemava filed a suit seeking an interlocutory injunction to restrain the President from exercising his prerogative of mercy under Article 72 of the Constitution to free the Montie three contemnors.

Taking his turn on Ghanaweb’s ’21 Minutes with KKB’, the stalwart legal practitioner refuted the perception that the legal action he took against the Mahama administration was due to a possible affiliation with the then opposition, New Patriotic Party (NPP).

He intimated that he had taken that decision long before sympathizers of the Montie three had petitioned President Mahama.

“I’m not a mole. I didn’t work with any NPP member or anybody associated with the NPP. I was the first to write an article on my Facebook wall even before the President could receive the petitions to take that decision,” Mr. Agbemava asserted.

According to him, President Mahama’s decision to release the Montie three was a step in the wrong direction, thus the decision to challenge the decision in court.

“I cautioned that this is a bad decision which will inure very badly to the party and that we must exercise caution. I also said that if that is done, I will proceed to court to challenge it”, Lawyer Agbemava posited.



The Montie Three saga

Two panellists, Alistair Nelson and Godwin Ako Gunn and political show host, Salifu Maase, alias Mugabe were incarcerated by the Supreme Court for four months and fined Ghc10,000 each after they were found guilty of contempt by the apex court.

The three had on a radio programme, on Montie FM, threatened to eliminate justices of the apex court over their handling of the lawsuit on the credibility of Ghana’s voters’ register.

A petition was signed by several government officials and members of the incumbent government and forwarded to the Council of State for advice by the Chief of Staff, asking the President to pardon the three NDC sympathizers.

However, Accra-based legal practitioner, Elikplim Agbemava filed a writ at the Supreme Court seeking an injunction on the proposed presidential pardon. He and two other citizens, NPP lawyer Nana Asante Bediatuo and Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, maintained that the pardon of the loyalists barely a month into their four-month conviction is "an unjustified interference with the independence of the Judiciary and, therefore, an affront to the Constitution of Ghana."

The Supreme Court has set October 23, 2018, to determine when they will judge on the legality of President John Mahama's decision to set free three National Democratic Congress loyalists.