The legal counsel of the Second Respondent, President Akufo-Addo for the 2020 election petition says the dismissal of Mahama’s application today at the Supreme Court is indicative of the herculean task ahead of the Petitioner.
Speaking to the press, Lawyer Frank Davies said: “The application for interrogatories was dismissed outright by a unanimous panel of seven. The petitioner (John Mahama) has a long way to go. The real work in court has started.”
At the second hearing of John Mahama’s election petition, the Supreme Court dismissed a motion that sought permission to obtain answers to some 12 interrogatories from the Electoral Commission.
The second respondent’s legal team is of the opinion that the actions of the petitioner serve one purpose – to delay the court proceedings.
Lawyer Frank Davies alleged that the petitioner filed the application of interrogatories at 2:30 pm on Monday, January 18.
“We came to court on the 14th January, if indeed you wanted an application, from the 14th that we came to court, we had an intervening period on Friday. You wait until yesterday before you file your application for interrogatories.”
He also disclosed that Mahama’s legal counsel only filed the request to provide documents for the proceedings today.
An action, he believes is unacceptable and unethical because when the case was adjourned on January 14, they had time to prepare their issues for all case managements for a pretrial.
Nonetheless, the EC’s legal team is adamant that all attempts to delay the trial would not succeed.
“So far as this petition is concerned the ground rules which have been set for this petition and the Supreme Court is not going to allow any terminable delays in the hearing of this petition. The court said there should be expedition.
“The court has made it clear that tomorrow morning, we should be here for pretrial,” he said.
Meanwhile, the legal counsel for the Second Respondent is confident that the success chalked today is as a result of keen preparations made.
“We are glad that the opposition we mounted was exactly what was rendered by the Supreme Court in its ruling. We were ready and prepared with our issues,” he stated.
The third hearing of the 2020 election petition has been adjourned to Wednesday, January 20.