The Supreme Court has in a unanimous decision quashed the orders made by Ho High Court placing an interim injunction on the gazetting and swearing-in of Member of Parliament-elect for the Hohoe constituency, John Peter Amewu.
The High Court presided over by Justice George Boadi on December 23, 2020, granted an injunction after some residents of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe, and Lolobi (SALL), argued that their inability to vote in the just-ended parliamentary election amounted to a breach of their rights.
The unanimous decision of the apex court presided over by Justice Yaw Appau in granting the application said the interested parties did not say anything for the justification of the orders of the injunction that was granted.
The court said Peter Amewu has nothing to do with the denial of the EC not to allow the people of SALL to vote. The Court said, Peter Amewu is also not an official of the EC but only presented himself up for a contest and won.
The court further said the interim injunction granted was for 10 days and had long elapsed on January 2, 2021, before the decision of the court.
The interim injunction is therefore quashed.
But the panel unanimously declined the AG’s request seeking an order to prohibit the High Court of Justice George Boadi, from further hearing or conducting proceedings in the said suit.
Background
The Ho High Court on December 23, 2020, presided over by Justice George Buadi granted an interim injunction restraining the Electoral Commission from gazetting Mr. Amewu as the MP for Hohoe.
This followed an ex parte application filed by residents of the Guan District who were not given the opportunity to vote in the December 7 parliamentary election.
They said, 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 State through a Deputy Attorney General, Godfred Dame, filed a motion at the Supreme Court to fight the injunction placed on Amewu by the Ho High Court.
The Deputy Attorney General 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.
It is the case of the state that John Peter Amewu’s victory in the Hohoe parliamentary election was gazetted a day before the residents of the SALL residents went to the High Court to place an injunction on the process.
Source: Kasapafmonline.com/102.5FM/Murtala Inusah
