Kofi Coomson Thrown Out

A Sekondi High Court yesterday threw out a writ filed by Peter Odoi and Isaac Kwamina Otoo, who claimed to be card-bearing members of the Effia Kwesimintsim Constituency of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), against the constituency chairman, Mr. P.B. Addo, the Western Regional Executive and National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party.

Justice Robin Batu, the Supervising High Court judge, however, expressed surprise that Nana Kofi Coomson, a hotelier and publisher of The Chronicle newspaper, on whose behalf the plaintiffs had filed the writ, could not come out to institute the motion but rather used surrogates, and that it would have been wiser if Coomson had instituted the action himself.

The plaintiffs claimed that Nana Kofi Coomson, a member of the NPP had been disqualified from contesting as a parliamentary candidate on the ticket of the party in the Effia-Kwesimintsim constituency, and therefore issued a writ challenging the disqualification. The plaintiffs consequently filed a motion for an interim injunction to restrain the NPP from holding any parliamentary primary in the Effia-Kwesimintsim constituency pending the determination of the case.

Odoi and Otoo were represented by Mr. Seth Awuku of Animens Chambers of Takoradi, while Mr. John Mensah of Mantey and Associates, an Accra-based law firm was the counsel for the NPP. In the motion for the injunction, the response by the NPP was that it is only the NEC which can disqualify a parliamentary candidate but had not done so. The court therefore ruled that the action instituted by Odoi and Otoo was premature and that Kofi Coomson was only speculating based on what the Western Regional Executives of the NPP had been saying. Based on this argument, Lawyer Awuku had no option but to withdraw the motion, indicating that he would advise himself whenever the NEC comes out with clear directives as to Kofi Coomson’s eligibility.