General secretaries of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Asiedu Nketia and Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie, are not the least enthused about calls for them to be barred from commenting on the ongoing Supreme Court hearing of the election petition.
This was after some Ghanaians, including the President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Affail Monney called on media practitioners to desist from interviewing the two on issues relating to the election petition pending before the country’s Supreme Court.
His advice came after several Ghanaians expressed worry about comments of the two in the ongoing trial since most of them are often at variance with proceedings of the day which could incite supporters and followers of the parties.
However, Asiedu Nketia otherwise known as ‘General Mosquito’ and his counterpart, Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie aka ‘Sir John’ criticized the GJA President’s attempt to ‘gag’ them as they put it.
Asiedu-Nketia, who spoke on Accra-based Citi FM, said nobody could stop him from commenting on the on-going trial since according to him he is party to the suit.
‘I am a party, I represent NDC so why do you say the matter I am a party to I should not talk about?’ he quizzed.
Instead, he said all his comments on the case were nothing but true reflection of proceedings in court.
His counterpart, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie did not equally take kindly to the suggestion, insisting he does not in anyway misinterpret what transpires in court.
‘There is a legal matter that is being sought in court and there is a political wing to it because the people who went to court are members of a political party so you cannot discount the political dimension from the legal dimension; you cannot.’
As a lawyer of good standing for the past 32 years, Sir John said ‘if they want lawyers to speak to the matters that are happening in court, I think that a first year law student will understand the processes that are going on in the court, let alone a lawyer of good standing for the past 32 years.’
By Charles Takyi-Boadu