Tsatsu to be charged for contempt?

“When Sir John made those unfortunate statements (against the bench), he was hauled before the court and rightly so, charged with contempt and so my question is; does what lawyer Tsikata said constitute contempt and if it does, what is good for the goose will necessarily be good for the gander? We are waiting; just as the court came strongly on Sir John, we are alert, waiting to see how things unfold,” said Hon. Kyeremanteng Agyarko, Member of Parliament for Ayawaso West Wougon constituency.

The NPP MP was commenting on Tsatsu Tsikata’s accusation that Justice Anin Yeboah, one of the nine justices who presided over the election petition at the Supreme Court, allowed his political affiliation to cloud his judgment. According to him, Justice Anin-Yeboah’s utterances and actions during proceedings, was indicative of the fact that he was in favour of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Hon. Agyarko alluded that the utterances of lawyer Tsikata borders on contempt; hence should be dealt with.

Contributing to a panel discussion on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo,’ Hon Agyarko said if that is the tangent Mr. Tsikata is going to tow, ‘it is unfortunate’.

According to him, before proceedings at the court started, the petitioners started making similar allegations and it was largely condemned “and so I don’t understand why this is coming up now. I was surprised to hear him say that…I think that day was one of the sad days of my life. A renowned lawyer who has taught a lot of people to also become lawyers; talking like this? If this is the path they want us to take then interpretations will be given, but I think we are being unfair. As a people, I think we are being unfair to ourselves. Looking at the calm and peaceful atmosphere after the ruling; is that what we want to do to ourselves?”

Hon. Agyarko asked if based on what the lawyer who stood in for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) said, one will be right to also state that “Justices Atuguba, Gbedegbe and Akoto Bamfo are affiliated to the NDC because on all the nine claims, they ruled in favour of the NDC? Are we going to go on this direction? Is that how we want things to go on?”

He added that if one is to go by the logic of Lawyer Tsatsu Tsikata, the judges should have rather ruled in favour of Nana Akufo-Addo because most of them (judges) were appointed by former President Kufour.