General News of Friday, 28 June 2013

Source: TV3 News

I apologise from the bottom of my heart – Atubiga to Supreme Court

A member of the communications team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Stephen Atubiga, has rendered an unqualified apology to the Supreme Court and Ghanaians as a whole over comments he describes as “irresponsible”.

Speaking on TV3’s News 360 on Thursday, June 27, 2013, Mr Atubiga said he considers his action inappropriate and contemptuous of the court.

“I apologise from the bottom of my heart,” he stated.

Mr Atubiga, together with two others, has been ordered to appear before the Court on Tuesday when it resumes sitting.

The order was given in court on Thursday by the president of the nine-judge panel, Justice William Atuguba.

The NDC spokesperson is said to have declared on an Accra-based radio station that his party will not sit aloof for the Court to overturn results of the 2012 Presidential Elections and that even if the panel declares the petitioners victors, NDC will not hand over power.

One of the two persons ordered to appear on Tuesday, Ken Kuranchie, who is also the Managing Editor of the Daily Searchlight, told TV3, however, that he will express his apology on Tuesday when he appears before “your lordships”.

He says he is talking to his lawyers and they will definitely respond to the verbal summons.

The Supreme Court had issued warnings to “any individuals and group of persons” over comments made in connection with proceedings in court, threatening to crack the whip.

The Daily Searchlight is expected to appear to clarify a front-page comment in the Thursday edition of the newspaper.

On Wednesday, a Deputy Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Samuel Awuku, was slapped with expulsion from the ourt’s proceedings from comments he admitted to have passed on Peace Fm on Tuesday.