The Supreme Court will today, sit to listen to two new applications filed by the petitioners in the ongoing 2020 Election Petition case brought to it by John Dramani Mahama, the 2020 presidential candidate of the NDC.
Tsatsu Tsikata, who is the lead lawyer for the petitioner, has filed for a review of the dismissal to compel Jean Mensa to testify in the case, and, a stay of proceedings pending the review applied for.
During its last sitting on Tuesday, February 16, 2021, the justices of the Supreme Court dismissed the application of the petitioner to reopen its case, and eventually, be able to subpoena the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, in an attempt to get her to undergo cross-examination.
In his ruling, Chief Justice, Anin Yeboah, said Mahama cannot hide under the pretext of reopening his case to subpoena Jean Mensa.
“A witness who has not yet entered the witness box to testify cannot, therefore, be called an adverse or hostile witness under any circumstance. The petitioner has not demonstrated to us in any way that the decision of the respondents not to testify which was upheld by this court in its ruling on February 11, 2021, has occasioned any miscarriage of justice,” as quoted by Citi News.
“The rules permit a party to call or not to call a witness who has filed a witness statement to testify, as the mere filing of a witness statement does not constitute an election to testify as we rightly held in our ruling on February 11, 2021. Again, the petitioner did not decide to close his case after the testimony of his third witness just because the chairperson of the first respondent has filed her witness statement. This is because, in law, a plaintiff or petitioner does not require evidence from his or her adversary in a system like ours to prove his or her case… The plaintiff or the petitioner succeeds on the strengths of his or her own case and not the weakness of his or her adversaries’ case,” He added.
Already, if this was a football match, the score lines would have readAkufo-Addo/Electoral Commission – 6, John Dramani Mahama FC – 0, an indication of the lopsided performance by the away team, which in this case, is the first and second respondents, the EC and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
