Member of the legal counsel for former president John Dramani Mahama has expressed disappointment about a statement by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s Lawyer describing his [Mahama’s Lawyers] posture in the election petition hearing as “rehearsed theatricals”.
According to Dominic Ayine, the comment by his learned colleague, Frank Davies, meant Mahama’s lawyers had the intention to cause unnecessary delay of the proceedings and disobey the orders of the court, claims according to him were unfounded.
Frank Davies’ comments come after the Supreme Court ordered, for the second time, the petitioner in the ongoing case, John Dramani Mahama, to file his witness statements and arguments in response to the preliminary objection raised by the respondents, latest by Wednesday, January 27.
The apex court presided by Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah, during today’s proceedings, expressed dissatisfaction about the conduct of the petitioner and warned it will take appropriate actions against him if he fails to comply with the order to file the witness statements and arguments by the given deadline.
Speaking to the media after the hearing, Frank Davies noted that the court has been “gracious and very lenient” to the petitioner because “he has been given another opportunity to correct the wrong.”
“The petitioner has been ordered to file his witness statements by close of day tomorrow which is Wednesday. The petition has been adjourned to the 28th of January for a hearing which is Thursday.
“We are all legal practitioners; the Supreme Court is a very busy place. The Supreme Court is not the forum for organized, rehearsed, and choreographed theatricals and drama. It is a place for real hard, and serious legal work.
“It is not for flying of literature and dull English devoid of any legal merit. I want to advise my colleagues from the other side that if it hasn’t been broken, don’t attempt to fix it. We are ready for them on Thursday,” he added.
But the spokesperson for the petitioner’s lawyers, Dr. Dominic Ayine, was of the view that the language used by the senior member of the bar, Frank Davies, was disrespectful and unacceptable.
In an interview with the media, he said, “I want to record our disappointment with respect to the language used this morning by senior member of the bar and former President of the Greater Accra Regional, Mr. Frank Davies.
“The language that he employed this morning is unacceptable in describing the actions of the petitioners' lawyers as theatricals, in describing us as persons who intend to be intransigent and disobedient to the orders of the court.
“I am sure that Mr. Frank Davies knows that all the applications that we have brought are within the framework of the law. You are journalists, please do a bit of research. Read CI 99 and please tell us where in the CI99 that it is said that you don’t bring an application for a stay of proceedings.
"Tell us where in CI99 it is said that you cannot bring an application for interrogatories and tell us where in CI99 it is stated that as a petitioner you cannot bring an interrogatory application before the court. These are all mechanisms that legal practitioners can deploy and we have emplored them in a way that is not abusive of our rights within the framework of the Supreme Court rules.
And so for him to have employed that language, it is most unacceptable and we take exception to what he said this morning,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has given Mr. John Mahama and his lawyers close of Wednesday, January 27, 2021, to file their witness case.
The case has since been adjourned to Thursday, January 28, 2021.
