General News of Sunday, 1 September 2013

Source: XYZ

SC verdict was corrupt judgment - Gabby

Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko says Thursday’s verdict on the election petition case was a “farcical” and “corrupt judgment”.

“This was a corrupt judgment, and I say so without apologies”, the Danquah Institute Executive Director wrote on his facebook wall.

Mr. Othcere-Darko, a cousin to the 2012 presidential candidate of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, said the judgment by the nine-member panel of the Supreme Court was “potentially dangerous to our democracy”.

The nine Justices, by majority decision, affirmed President John Mahama’s election as “valid” after hearing the case for eight months.

Nana Akufo-Addo conceded to Mr. Mahama hours after the verdict was announced on August 29, 2013.

He said even though he “disagreed” with the judgment and was also “disappointed” by it, he nonetheless “accepted” it, so the country could move on.

The former Attorney General also urged all his supporters to accept the judgment peacefully.

Otchere-Darko has also advised the party to: “Ignore the judiciary; they can't be bothered to undertake their primary duty of defending the Constitution. Let us work to do what we need to do to avoid problems with future elections”.

He, however, clarified that: “The fact that I totally disagree with a decision of the court does not mean I do not accept it. Justice is not what I want it to be. But, I will not stop condemning what I find to be wrong. I'm entitled to my opinion as much as the 9 justices were and I maintain that what they did was farcical and the decision was a corrupt one, disrespectful of the Constitution of the Republic”.

According to him, “let them do me for contempt, after all Grandpa Danquah died in jail for standing by his convictions”.