Former Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr. Stephen Opuni is in the supreme court again to set aside Justice Clemence Honyenuga as the trial judge in a case involving him and the Government of Ghana. The embattled former appointee of Mahama is in the supreme court with an application for certiorari and a petition to stop Justice Clemence Jackson Honyenuga, a Supreme Court judge siting as an additional High Court judge, from continuing to hear his case.
In will be recalled that last year, the man went to the same apex court seeking to prohibit the judge from hearing his case and to struck out some rulings in the case. The supreme court in an earlier ruling prohibited the trial judge from further sitting on the case. However upon a review application by the attorney general, the court rescinded it’ s decision.
On Monday, lead counsel for Opuni, Samuel Codjoe told the court that they have filed a motion invoking the supervisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court for certiorari and prohibition which has been scheduled for February 8, 2022.
According to the lawyer, the application is on ‘ open hostility’ towards the accused by the trial judge. He stated that the acts and conducts of the judge is such that justice cannot be said to be seen to be done, hence the new application.
Samuel Codjoe argued that the court had gone back on its previous practice of agreeing on dates with lawyers involved in the matter and now imposing hearing dates contrary to what pertained when the prosecution was calling its witnesses.
But the application was opposed by Evelyn Keelson who is a Chief State Attorney. The state believes Dr. Opuni was only trying to delay the court process. She said argued that Dr. Opuni failed woefully to demonstrate any credible evidence of bias against him by the court.
” As we have stated in our affidavit, this application has been filed to start another round of antics by the applicant to delay the trial, and that is why we took the trouble to present before this court in our affidavit in opposition to the events that have characterised this trial. The averments in his affidavit in support are mere allegations with no basis at all” , the affidavit reads in parts.
Meanwhile, the court could not sit on the case on Monday as scheduled due to system failure. Justice Honyenuga announced in court that all courts have had their systems strangely crushed which affected his court too. He therefore had to adjourn the hearing to January 17 with the hope that the problem will be resolved by then.
” We are supposed to be continuing today but the whole system is broken down and we do not know when it is coming back. The whole system is affected and it is not only this court. It is nobody’ s fault, ” Justice Clemence Honyenuga stated.
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