Validate last-minute appointments - Adawudu prays Supreme Court

Legal Practitioner and member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Victor Kwadwoga Adawudu, has filed a suit at the Supreme Court, praying the apex court to enforce and declare as valid last-minute appointments made by outgoing president, Mr John Dramani Mahama.

President Mahama, a few days to his exit from office following his defeat in last year’s elections, swore Joe Whittal and Ms Josephine Nkrumah into office as Commissioner and Chairperson, respectively of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE).

The appointments were condemned by critics who thought the outgoing president acted in bad faith.

It also led to suit filed New Patriotic Party’s defeated parliamentary candidate for the Klottey Korley constituency in the just ended 2016 election, Philip Addison, challenging the power and authority of the outgoing president in making those eleventh hour appointments.

Mr Adawudu, however, believes that President Mahama acted within the ambit of the law.

He told Class News on Friday, 6 January that: “This suit is just about the interpretation and enforcement of the provision of the Constitution. What I have asked for is that Article 58 (1), 66 (1) (give) a president that power to appoint people and under the prescribed provision.”

“I am also saying that where it is being said that an agreement between the transition teams that where there is a constitutional job or mandate to appoint, they should be consulted, is a bad precedent and should not be followed so those are the main reasons why I am in court.”