The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has intimated that they will soon submit to the Supreme Court hearing the 2012 Election Petition, some contemptuous comments on tape alleged to have been uttered by some members of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Former Youth Organizer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Anthony Abayifa Karbo, who made the revelation, also added that the party is waiting patiently for its General Secretary, Lawyer Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, to be hauled before the nine-member panel of judges after the court’s attention was drawn to a publication in the Enquirer Newspaper claiming that the NPP Chief Scribe had made some potentially contemptuous remarks.
President of the panel of judges hearing the Election Petition, Justice William Atuguba gave the hint on Monday when he made reference to a front-page publication carried by the Enquirer newspaper in which Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie is reported to have disrespected the justices.
The publication was based on statements made by the NPP Gen Sec on Oman FM, an Accra-based commercial radio station.
Sir John was reported to have said in an angry tone, “Do they think we are stupid. You (Atuguba) sit there and frown like a voodoo deity. When Addison is talking you shout him down and beat him with sticks but when it comes to Tsatsu, when he gets angry, you ask him apologetically if he is angry. What hurts me the most is that man you call Atugubu or Atuguba”
But speaking to the issue on Adom FM on Tuesday, Anthony Karbo, who claimed not to have heard the tape, stressed that the Supreme Court has not officially cited Lawyer Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie for contempt and are rather searching for the alleged tape to buttress the newspaper’s front page publication.
He gave the assurance that following the court’s search for the tape, many more of such tapes – of politicians and commentators making potentially contemptuous statements – are likely to pop out.
“They (Judges) have not told us what Sir John has said. I have not heard it (the tape); (I understand) they are looking for a tape, where they will get the tape? Which radio station will present the tape? Or is it that the National Security or some members of the NDC have already sent the tape to the judges?… I can tell them (Judges) to also wait, a tape is on its way,” he stridently said.
Asked by the host where the tape will come from, he again said “…from us, the NPP, are you asking me? More tapes are going to come out. The court hearing has now turned to a game of tapes. This is what I was cautioning. This approach of contempt will not be sustainable, Kweku Baako once said so.”
“It will be important for the Justices of the Supreme Court to concentrate on the main issue…,” he added.