Election petition: Atuguba was disrespectful to Ghanaians - Agyarko

The campaign manager for the NPP presidential candidate in the 2012 elections says the presiding judge in the election petition case, Justice William Atuguba, was disrespectful to Ghanaians in the manner he delivered the final verdict in the landmark case.

According to Boakye Agyarko, the Supreme Court justice read the verdict as though nothing was at stake.

“Justice Atuguba’s attitude during the reading of the verdict was insulting to Ghanaians. They appeared to pay more attention to things outside the court than the things that happened in the courtroom itself.

“It appears the judges were overwhelmed by the case. They couldn’t give any clear roadmap on how elections must be conducted in this country. They lost right to order. They appeared overwhelmed by the magnitude of the case,” he said on Oman FM on Tuesday.

Justice Atuguba was the presiding judge of the nine-member panel that affirmed the legitimacy of president John Mahama after the 8-months-long election challenge.

Nana Akufo-Addo, together with his running mate in the 2012 presidential election, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, and the party’s Chairman at the time, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, challenged the results of the December presidential election on grounds that there were too many irregularities that marred the sanctity and integrity of the final results declared by the country’s Electoral Commission.

They prayed the West African country’s highest court to nullify the results. A nine-member panel of Justices, led by William Atuguba, however, upheld the victory of John Mahama, after the long legal battle.