PLAYBACK: 'Newsfile' on JoyNews

Samson Lardy Anyenini and his abled panellists delved into issues that made headlines this week on current affairs show, ‘Newsfile’.

The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights on Friday unanimously dismissed a case filed by beleaguered businessman, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, against the state.

The court said Woyome’s right to non-discrimination, right to equality before the law, equal protection before the law and his right to be heard by an impartial tribunal had all not been violated.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has ruled that the assets of the businessman be sold to defray a GH¢51.2million debt he owes the state.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the removal of heads of public corporations as a result of a change of government is unconstitutional.

In a unanimous decision, a seven-member panel of the court, presided over by the Chief Justice, Justice Sophia Akuffo, held that per Article 190 Clause 1(b) of the 1992 Constitution, public corporations were part of the Public Services of Ghana and, therefore, such persons were public service officers whose appointments were protected by the Constitution.

According to the court, the appointments of such public service officers were governed by Article 195 of the Constitution.

The removal of such public service officers, the court held, must, therefore, be done in accordance with the terms and conditions of their contract of engagement or it must be justified, as stipulated in Article 191 of the Constitution.

Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu believes that even though the ruling shouldn’t apply to past CEOs, it will reduce the winner-takes-all politics whilst the NDC is urging sacked CEOs to seek redress.

A special audit carried out by the Auditor-General on the Electoral Commission has revealed the Commission sold voters’ data to an Accra-based software development company. According to the report, the software development company, Bysystem Ltd, bought the data from the EC and further sold them to financial service providers for a fee.

The Audit on the EC was part of special audits carried out by the Auditor-General on selected state institutions in 2018. The audit report also revealed that there was no agreement between the EC and Bysystem Limited on the sale of voters’ information.