Court throws out Afoko’s exhibits

The Human Rights Court presided over by Justice Anthony Yeboah on Tuesday struck out four (4) out of five (5) exhibits relied on by the suspended chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Paul Afoko, in the case he has filed against the NPP.

This was in pursuant to an objection raised by counsel for the NPP, Godfred Yeboah Dame, at the court's sitting.

The matter had been adjourned to Wednesday 13th April, to enable parties file and serve their respective pre-trial check list.

When the matter was called, both sides had complied with the order of the trial judge. The Court thus indicated its intention to adjourn proceedings to a date for the trial to commence. Counsel for NPP, Godfred Dame, however, sprang to his feet to object to four of Mr. Afoko's five exhibits.

The first exhibit was a document Mr. Afoko's lawyers described as supplementary objections to the petition filed by the NPP's council of elders against Mr. Afoko. Counsel contended that the exhibit was irrelevant to the issues before the court. Mr. Afoko's lawyer, Osafo-Buabeng failed to justify the relevance of the exhibit. The presiding judge consequently upheld Mr. Dame's objection and expunged the exhibit from the record.

Counsel for the NPP raised further objections to 3 other exhibits, being statements filed by Mr. Afoko's lawyers at the Disciplinary Committee hearing, on the ground of being irrelevant and thus, unhelpful to the resolution of issues for trial. The Court, once again after hearing arguments from both counsels, upheld Mr. Dame's objections and struck out those exhibits of Mr. Afoko.

Justice Yeboah adjourned proceedings to 9th May 2016 for trial.