You are not permitted to run irrelevant commentaries - Akoto Ampaw to Rojo Mettle-Nunoo

Lawyer for the first respondent in the ongoing Election Petition hearing at the Supreme Court, Akoto Ampaw, has indicated to Rojo Mettle-Nunoo, the third witness for the petitioner, that he has no permission to run irrelevant commentaries.

Akoto Ampaw said this to the witness after a cross-examination between the lawyer for the second respondent in the case, the Electoral Commission’s Justin Amenuvor, and the third witness was littered with a lot of verbal clashes and interjections from the Justices of the Supreme Court.

At a point, the lawyer for the petitioner, Tsatsu Tsikata, was asked by one of the Justices to call his witness to order, to which the lawyer stated that he did not want to interfere with the responses of the witness.

“Mr. Tsikata, please, can you let your witness be very, very, very specific of these simple issues – very very simple issues. I don’t know why he is dragging it,” one of the justices said.

Mr. Tsikata, representing John Dramani Mahama, the petitioner in the case, then responded, “My Lord, I do not wish to interfere with the answers of the witness.

When it was Akoto Ampaw, the counsel representing President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s turn to cross-examine the witness, who was doing so via video conferencing, he told him that it was important that he does not beat about the bush when asked a question.

“Let me advise you that you are before the Supreme Court and when I put a question to you, the court expects you to answer the question, not to set up your own question and run around with it. So please, listen carefully to my questions and answer them,” he said.

Rojo responded, “My Lord, can I be clear? If I answer a question with your initial statement, and I need to throw more light on that answer, am I not permitted to do so?”

“You are not permitted to run irrelevant commentaries, that I am trying to tell you,” Akoto Ampaw retorted.