If you want to hear Jean Mensa, parliament can invite her – Petitioners told

Information Minister-designate, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, has told petitioners that if they want to question the Electoral Commission chairperson, they should try going through parliament.

According to him, their application was channeled through the wrong platform (Supreme Court) but that parliament could invoke its powers if they maintain their stance to seek answers from her. “If you want the EC chair to answer questions, we can invite her to parliament,” he said.

He added: “There is a whole constitutional provision for parliamentary inquiry, but the forum that you have chosen and the constitutional provision you have invoked, article 64 (1) is not the platform for general constitutional accountability.”

He was addressing the media at the end of the court’s sitting today, February 16, 2021. The seven-member Supreme Court of Ghana panel dismissed yet another application from the petitioners seeking to reopen their case.

The move by lead counsel Tsatsu Tsikata was to allow them subpoena the EC chair, Jean Mensa, to testify. The court ruled that it would not compel a party in the case to testify.

The petitioners have however filed two applications for a review of the ruling and also to make further submissions on the importance of the application to reopen their case. The court will hear the two processes on Thursday February 18, 2021.