Tony Lithur, the lawyer for the first Respondent on the ongoing Electoral fraud case has been told his method of cross-examination will not be tolerated anymore. The President of the presidential election petition panel, William Atuguba JSC, has directed that Mr Lithur should list all the pinksheets he has issues with and say their effect on the numbers and this must be done "forthwith" before Monday.
This is exactly what I said on my article on Friday April 19th, titled; " Mahama And NDC Fumbling At Supreme Court And Batting 0 For 2". In the said article, I wrote this,
My problem with his line of questioning is that, after asking the witness to explain ten of these same questions and having proved his point, he could have moved on by telling the court he has about 1000 of such sheets and sought the permission of the court to tender them in as exhibits.If lawyer Lithur has 1000 of such sheets, is he going to introduce each one into evidence like he is doing? No court will allow such an abuse to go on"
The Respondents lawyers, Tony Lithur, Tsatsu Tsikata and Quarshie Idun deliberately are trying to prolong this trial for years and with their so called genius status as lawyers and having been to courtrooms for decades, I wonder how they thought they could pull this wool over the eyes of the nine Judges who have seen through the sham cross-examination going on. This is the reason why Ndc lawyers at one time lost nineteen(19) straight cases because as a layman who watched almost 100% of Justice Clarence Thomas vetting when he was nominated to the USA Supreme Court and Anita Hill brought sexual harrasment allegations against him to torpedo his acceptance to the USA highest Court and the O.J Simpson murder trial, I knew no court anywhere in the world will tolerate the childish prank Tony Lithur and his coterie of lawyers were trying to pull.
Now we are all waiting to see if Ato-Dadzie, the loudmouth second bananas Ndc benchwarming lawyer can fulfil his "Bawumia will face ‘fire’ on Monday" prophecy. Maybe he never thought the Court will put brakes on their three stooges like cross-examination charade. This has been the strategy of the Mahama, EC and NDC all along, to prolong this trial for the whole four years and that is why they threatened to call more than 8'000 Witnesses which the SC made it a stillborn. Having failed that, they tried another sham when they signed up 327 drunks from Asiedu Nketiah's village, Mahama's Bole-Bamboi neighborhood and Koku Anyidohos sumo wrestling school to file individual petitions as an interested party to the election petition. Sad when their case was called, not even one of them who have been given twenty Ghana cedis each and all the pito and akpeteshie they could drink could muster courage to enter the courtroom and fled from the courthouse.
Their lawyer who slept through the court proceedings later said that, his clients who were shabbily dressed and have foul smell due to the long distance they have to travel were intimidated by the well dressed workers at the court hence they have fled from the court premises.
Below is the terse letter sent to Tony Lithur and his accomplices in this charade.
"In order to expedite the hearing of the petition, the panel hereby directs that the cross-examination on the pink sheets be continued as follows:
1. Counsel for the 1st Respondent do list out the residue of the pink sheets in the manner here to be identified by him in his cross-examination of the 2nd petitioner which he claims were duplicated, in their mode and manner of generation and extent of their user by the petitioners for the purposes of proof of their petition.
2. The said list should be electronically served forthwith by counsel for the 1st respondent on all other parties.
3. At the resumed sitting on Monday, 22/04/2013 counsel for the 1st respondent may put the said list by way of further cross-examination to the 2nd petitioner for his response.
4. The said list can then be tended in evidence.
5. Counsel for the 1st respondent or any other party may bring along with him his or their copies of the pink sheets.
W. A. ATUGUBA PRESIDING JUDGE
Tony, now let's get to the meaty part of your cross-examination and see what you got.
Justice Sarpong
(CARDINAL of TRUTH)
