The private legal practitioner representing petitioners seeking to impeach Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Charlotte Osei, has withdrawn his counter suit against her.

Maxwell Opoku-Agyemang was dragged to court by the EC Chair for professional misconduct and accused of defamation.

The EC Chair in her suit pleaded with the court to direct Mr Opoku-Agyemang to “publish a retraction and an apology with the same prominence as the defamatory statements against her and following up to defend those words in the traditional and social media.”

But Mr Opoku-Agyemang in a countersuit asked the court to strike out the case against him.

The motion on notice, which was filed on behalf of Mr Opoku-Agyemang by his lawyer Julius Opoku Adjei, was to be moved Monday, October 9, 2017, but as Joy News’ Joseph Ackah-Blay reports, the lawyer has withdrawn the countersuit.

He told the court that his client has ordered him to withdraw the suit because he has tasked another lawyer to take over, hence his inability to continue.

Counsel for the EC Chair, Thaddeus Sory, was not happy with the development.

He therefore as senior at the bar, requested that GHS50,000 be awarded as cost to him.

But presiding judge, Justice Ackah-Boafu did not agree entirely with that.

Although he granted the withdrawal, he awarded GHS4,000 as cost and not GHS50,000 as requested by Thaddeus Sory.

Background

In July this year, Joy News intercepted copies of a 29-point petition by workers of the Electoral Commission requesting for the impeachment of the Chairperson for stated misbehavior.

The unnamed workers alleged the Chairperson of the Commission in many instances breached the Procurement Law in procuring goods and services for the Commission.

In what the petitioners claim to be a one-woman show, Charlotte Osei was alleged to have unilaterally and without recourse to procurement procedures engaged the services of lawyers, Sory@Law who represented the Commission in the pre-election legal banter with aggrieved parties and disqualified flagbearers.

She was also alleged to have abrogated an existing contract with Super Tech Ltd. (STL), unilaterally renegotiating and re-awarding the contract at a new sum of $21,999,592 without serious regard to the tender processes.

“The chairperson, Mrs Charlotte Osei unilaterally awarded a contract of about $25,000 to a South African company Quazar Limited to change and re-develop the Commission’s Logo under the guise of rebranding without going through tender contrary to the Public Procurement Act,” point 26 of the petition read.

Apart from the breaches of the Procurement Law, the petitioners claimed the EC chair compromised her position and the independence of the Commission by attending cabinet meetings during the tenure of the John Mahama administration and even caused the arrangement of a 2015 Land Cruiser with registration number WR 2291-15 from the office of the president for use as her official vehicle.

The petitioners also levelled allegations of managerial, administrative incompetence and ineptitude against the EC Chair.