Supreme Court warns Prez Mahama et. al

The nine-member Bench hearing the ongoing election petition case has clarified that its persistent warnings against contemptuous comments cover everyone, irrespective of status, including the president.

The clarification was given by the President of the Bench, William Atuguba, when hearing resumed on Wednesday June 26, 2013.

Justice Atuguba noted “…The touchline we issued last Monday covers everybody in this country; from [the] President down to anybody; everybody is covered; everybody, I want to make that clear. That’s the coverage area of our warning”.

President John Mahama has, on three occasions, publicly expressed confidence of victory in the ongoing election petition.

He told party supporters on June 10 at the party’s headquarters in Accra that: “Our victory was won cleanly and fairly”.

He had earlier expressed confidence of the Supreme Court affirming his victory when he spoke to the BBC.

On Sunday, June 23, Mr. Mahama told the Mount Horeb Congregation at the church’s 20th anniversary at Mamfe in the Eastern region that his victory in the 2012 election was divinely ordained, thus the main opposition New Patriotic Party's befuddlement about the turn of events, especially because he had only 40 days to campaign.

Before defining the limits of the Bench’s incessant warnings against contemptuous comments on the case, Justice Atuguba described as a “complete mis-reportage”, the publication by some media houses that the ruling by the court on Monday, denying the petitioners access to soft copies of international accounting firm KPMG's audit report of tendered exhibits, was by a 7-2 majority.

He clarified that the ruling was a unanimous one.

Justice Atuguba said the mistake was unpardonable and reiterated earlier admonishing that the media must be circumspect in their reportage regarding the matter.

He also shrugged off a description of the Judges as “wild” personalities by the Daily Guide Newspaper.

He implored the paper to use “decent language”.

Also, Mr. Atuguba expressed strong reservations about certain comments allegedly made by a Deputy Communication Director of the main opposition New Patriotic Party, Mr. Sammy Awuku.

Mr. Awuku is quoted by the Daily Graphic to have accused the Judges of being “hypocritical and selective”.