Chief Justice Gertrude Torkonoo has clarified the decision to expedite the injunction action that Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor, the MP for South Dayi, filed in order to prevent parliament from confirming President Akufo-Addo’s recently appointed ministers.
Since all formalities had been completed, Justice Torkonoo declared that the matter was ready for a hearing.
Speaking with journalists on Thursday in Accra, the Chief Justice stated “In this particular case, as soon as the case was filed, the Attorney General filed his response. He filed his affidavit to the opposition. So the case was right for hearing. We were going to go on Easter break and the Attorney General wrote and said that this is a matter of governance so could the court issue hearing notice for the case to be heard and the court was going to sit on Wednesday, so hearing notices were issued so that the applicant who filed the case himself and who should be interested in his case himself to come court and the two other respondents will also come to court.
“So the bailiff went and served all of them with hearing notices and when the court sat on that Wednesday, it formed part of our list because hearing notices have been served on everybody and the respondents had filed their affidavit in opposition. At least the Attorney General had.
“So when the case was called the affidavit of service was on the docket. We knew that the applicant had been served, the speaker had been served, the Attorney General had been served, the speaker’s lawyer was in court, the Attorney General was in court, Attorney General had filed his affidavit in opposition, so nothing should stop the hearing”.
It is noteworthy that on March 27, South Dayi MP Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor’s application contesting the confirmation of new ministerial and deputy ministerial nominations was denied by the Supreme Court.
A five-person panel of the court decided unanimously that the application was frivolous and a misuse of the legal system.
The MP’s case, which mostly involved reassignment Ministers, was found to have no direct bearing on the nominees before Parliament by the Supreme Court.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com