‘May you decide with your conscience and judicial oath’ – Tsatsu to SC

Lawyer Tsatsu Tsikata, lead lawyer for petitioner John Dramani Mahama in the ongoing Election Petition; has urged justices of the Supreme Court of Ghana to make decisions based on their conscience and their judicial oaths.

Tsikata made the call as he concluded arguments in a review application filed by the petitioner to reopen his case to allow him subpoena the representative of the first respondent, Jean Mensa; EC chairperson.

“As Acquah indicated in the Coglex case, heeding the promptings of conscience, heeding fidelity to the judicial oath; he found it appropriate to reverse a decision of the ordinary bench.

“May each of your Lordships decide in accordance with your conscience and your judicial oath. Ultimately, and even more profoundly, it is for the chairperson of the first respondent to come forward to testify as she indicated on oath she would do,” he added.

The court on February 22, 2021; reconstituted itself to a nine-member panel to hear the arguments seeking to reopen the petitioner’s case. Lawyers for the first and second respondents have flatly opposed the application.

The reopening it is argued, will allow them to subpoena the EC chairperson and to treat her as a hostile witness and to adduce evidence from her testimony. The court in its earlier ruling said it could not force a person to testify in a petition as this.