Bright Akwetey
The
Supreme Court yesterday dismissed an application for contempt brought against
President Akufo-Addo over the much-talked-about National Cathedral project.
The
contempt action was initiated by a man called Jonathan Holm who is represented
by Bright Akwetey. The court described the application as incompetent and
without merit.
A
seven-member panel chaired by Justice Jones Victor Dotse while dismissing the
application said the President is immune from both criminal and civil actions
as stipulated by Article 57 (4 and 5) of the 1992 Constitution.
The
court went ahead to explain that the same constitution while giving the President
immunity also prescribed solutions on how to deal with him
in the form of impeachment.
Moving
the motion on notice, Mr. Akwetey insisted that even though Article 57 stipulates
that the President cannot be sued while in office, he could still be sued when
he is personally liable for a crime.
According
to him, when the President ‘deliberately’ commits a crime, he is open to legal
action and urged the court to commit the President for contempt.
Preliminary Objection
Dorothy
Afriyie Ansah, a Chief State Attorney, raised a preliminary objection insisting
the President is immune from both criminal and civil actions as per Article 57
(4 and 5) as a sitting President.
She
argued that the President can only be sued three years after leaving office as
the Constitution mandates, and urged the court not to entertain the
application.
In
the main suit, the plaintiff is pushing that the President’s pledge and
subsequent decision to build a National Cathedral is in fulfilment of his
private pledge.
He
also argued that the use of the state land to build the National Cathedral is
unconstitutional because he said it does not serve any interest of the public.
He, therefore, wants “a declaration that the land designated by the President of the Republic for the construction of the National Cathedral was compulsorily acquired under Section 3 of the Public Lands Ordinance of 1876 (Cap. 134).”
By Gibril Abdul Razak
