I am happy justice has been served – Dep A-G supports decision to quash SALL case

The Deputy Attorney General said he is happy justice has been served in the case in which the people of Satrokofi, Akpafu, Leklebi, and Lolobi (SALL) sought to freeze the gazetting of Hohoe MP-elect, John Peter Amewu.

Expressing his excitement, Godfred Yeboah Dame said he knew right from the onset that the injunction filed by residents of SALL, at the Ho High Court, which was granted, was totally out of order.

“Right from the onset, our contention was that the action filed at the Ho High court was incompetent. It was totally out of order because you cannot seek election petition relief in human right action.

“And today [Tuesday] the court has given the same effect, that it was unjustified for them to have commenced an election petition and characterize same as human right action,” Mr Dame said beaming.

In a unanimous decision, the five-member panel, presided by Justice Yaw Appau, held that the court erred in granting the order since it did not have the jurisdiction to do so.

The court was of the belief that while the Ho High Court’s decision was about election petition, the original case which invoked the jurisdiction of the court was about human right violations.

The court, however, declined to prohibit the Ho High Court from continuing with the case of human right violation which the SALL people claimed had been occasioned by the EC’s failure to allow them to vote in the parliamentary election in Hohoe.

Commenting on why the Attorney General’s Department decided to take up Amewu’s fight, he said the state lawyers were mentioned as a party in the Ho proceedings, and thus, its decision to take up the case.

The Deputy Attorney General’s comment comes after the Supreme Court quashed the decision of the Ho High Court granting an injunction to the residents of Satrokofi, Akpafu, Leklebi, and Lolobi (SALL).

Background

The state through a Deputy Attorney General, Godfred Dame, filed a motion at the apex court to fight an injunction placed on Amewu by the Ho High Court.

The injunction was granted after some residents of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe, and Lolobi (SALL) argued that the Electoral Commission’s failure to allow them to vote in the just-ended parliamentary elections amounted to a breach of their rights.

The injunction secured by the residents prevented the commission from gazetting Mr Amewu as the winner of the Hohoe parliamentary polls.

According to them, the creation of the Oti Region coupled with a recent Supreme Court decision and failure of the EC to create a constituency for them meant they did not vote for a parliamentary candidate in the just-ended election.

But the Attorney General jumped to the defence of the commission. It argued that the decision is not legally sound.

READ: Why Tsikata wants Honyenugah removed from Amewu’s case

Attorney General’s argument

It was the case of the deputy Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame that the Ho High court erred when it granted the injunction.

Mr. Dame said the case affects the rights of the residents of Hohoe Constituency to have an MP and the composition of the next parliament.

He argued that the High Court in exercising its human rights oversight had no jurisdiction to grant the injunction as the SALL residents did not go through the proper procedure.

According to him, residents of SALL do not belong to the Volta Region where the Hohoe constituency is found and therefore cannot challenge the election of the MP.

Mr Dame said the right constituency for the people of SALL to cast their vote was the Buem Constituency in the Oti Region and not the Hohoe Constituency.

He urged the court to strike out the case.

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Counsel for the residents, Tsatsu Tsikata, however, disagreed.

He argued that the action by the commission to deny his clients from voting in the parliamentary election in Hohoe is a breach of the fundamental human rights, administrative justice and the right to equality before the law.

With regards to voting in the Buem constituency, Mr Tsikata said it is unconstitutional because the commission had failed to gazette the specific constituency stated.

Court’s documents suggested that the Guan District, out of which the Guan constituency would be created was gazetted in August 2020.