Tsatsu’s questions are irrelevant – Addison

Lead Counsel for the petitioners in the ongoing Petition hearings challenging the declared outcome of the December 7th Presidential Elections, Philip Addison has described the questions of Counsel for the National Democratic Congress, Tsatsu Tsikata, as irrelevant and urged the NDC lawyer to realize the seriousness of the courtroom.

Counsel Philip Addison made the statements on Wednesday, the tenth day of the cross examination of the lead witness of the petitioners, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia by Counsel Tsatsu Tsikata.

Counsel Tsatsu Tsikata, while cross examining the lead witness shifted into a totally different area and began asking the witness questions on statements made by party officials of the New Patriotic Party. He began by seeking to use a statement issued by Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey and attempted to question the witness on each and every paragraph in the statement.

After three paragraphs, the judges quickly intervened and pointed out to the Counsel that his questions were becoming repetitive and argumentative and that all the issues he was seeking to raise in the individual paragraphs had been responded to by the witness who had stated that the petitioner's case was solely what had been presented in their petition to the Court and related to violations, malpractices and irregularities that had affected the conduct and outcome of the elections.

When he was hauled out of that arena, Counsel Tsatsu Tsikata directed his attention to supposed statements made by Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie, General Secretary of the NPP and other officials of the NPP which the counsel failed to name.

Counsel Tsatsu Tsikata again brought up the statement he claimed was supposedly issued by the NPP, which asked Christians to wear white to Church, and whether Dr. Bawumia was aware of that statement issued by the NPP. Dr. Bawumia indicated that he was not aware of the specific statement and that he also was not sure of what other directives were issued to other religious groupings.

It was at this point that Counsel for the Petitioners drew the court’s attention to the irrelevancy of the questions being asked by the NDC lawyer.

“My Lords, these questions should not be asked in court. We are serious here. We are being subjected to a number of irrelevant questions here. The Counsel continues to ask these irrelevant questions, and when the witness tries to answer fully, he is denied the right to give a full answer to these irrelevant questions. Whether people were asked to wear white or not is not relevant my lords“, he said.

President of the Court, Justice William Atuguba, asked the lead Counsel for the petitioners to leave the issue of relevancy to the court and that the Justices were the right persons to deal with the relevancy.

However, when Counsel Tsatsu Tsikata persisted in that line of questioning, the Judges stopped the NDC lawyer, indicating that those issues had been dealt with, and responses given by the witness; with Justice Vida Akoto-Bamfo stating that, in her own opinion, those questions and issues were not relevant as it was obvious that the court was dealing with only matters, which were in the petition, which did not include those matters the Counsel was seeking to cross examine the witness on.