Lawyers for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in the ongoing election petition case have rejected claims that the Supreme Court is sacrificing justice for expedition.
It comes after former President John Mahama’s lead counsel in the petition, Tsatsu Tsikata told the judges in open court on Wednesday not to sacrifice justice for expedition.
The judges had on Tuesday ruled against his attempt to put 12 interrogatories to the Electoral Commission prior to trial. Then on Wednesday all parties in the case were ordered to get their witness statements ready on Thursday.
Tsatsu Tsikata first sought a review of the ruling against the interrogatories then stated that the time given for the presentation of witness statement was too short and is a threat to the delivery of justice.
“The timeline that is provided for us to have witness statements does not seem to be justified…I do know about the schedule provided, but I also know that your lordships are here to administer justice and that justice should not be sacrificed for expedition,” Tsatsu Tsikata said in court.
But spokesperson for President Akufo-Addo’s legal team, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah told Star FM the judges are minded by the time frame set out for election petition as contained in the C.I. 99.
“The issues are in simple terms, after all the long talks, the court will determine these are the real issues we should talk about. It’s part of the court process to expedite trial and expedition doesn’t sacrifice justice. Every lawyer knows this,” he said.
Meanwhile, Member of the NDC’s legal team in the ongoing election petition, Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong says the Supreme Court is being unfair to the petitioners.
“Let no one say we are not prepared. If we were not prepared we wouldn’t have come to court, we wouldn’t have filed the petition in the first place. All we are saying is processes we have served, processes we have filed, processes that need to be dealt with have not been dealt with. How do we start a trial that is all we are saying,” she said.
“So, if you ask us to come to court on the 26th to commence a trial, how are we going to start a trial when our notice to admit facts have not been dealt with?” she quizzed.
Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong added that “our interrogatories, our application for review of interrogatories has been pushed to a date after the trial has started. It doesn’t really make sense to us, unfortunately, we have to say this.”