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Opinions of Saturday, 20 February 2021

Columnist: Rockson Adofo

Lawyer Tsatsu is a Spent Force

Lawyer Tsatsu Tsikata, affiliate and legal counsel to the National Democratic Congress Lawyer Tsatsu Tsikata, affiliate and legal counsel to the National Democratic Congress

The octogenarian lawyer Tsatsu Tsikata, the Counsel for the petitioner in the ongoing election 2020 before the Supreme Court is clearly coming across as a spent force. This is my sincere observation.

He leads a case to court on behalf of a plaintiff. As a lawyer, he fails to ensure that his client's case is supported by facts and abundant credible, permissible and acceptable evidence relevant to the case. He only walks in bare-handed and still expects miraculous favourable outcome for his client.

He expects to win his client's case based on the weakness of the defendant's case but not on the strength of his client's case. This method is not only unacceptable in law everywhere in the world but has no case law reference, thus precedent, to support it.

The more he is pointed in the right direction by the bench (judges), the more he intransigently veers off the correct legal path and still expects to win the case for his client.

Is there any further use of a spent, thus used, bullet shell? No. Once you fire a bullet, the remnant shell that falls out of the gun is of no further use except for justification that a gun was fired. The shell can no longer serve the relevant purpose of killing a game (animal), firing as a warning shot or whatever.

His arguments so far are not based in law and rules of law as are relevant to the case before the court yet, he is adamantly opposed to doing the right thing to bring sanity into his worth as an experienced lawyer and law lecturer.

He keeps moving motions on notice upon motions of notice. He keeps filing applications upon applications all of which are irrelevant to the case and objective his client is pursuing in court.

The only thing he would have achieved in the end is to have made the diehard NDC faithful believe that the Supreme Court judges are not fair to them by their incessant rejections of his porous and unsubstantiated applications.

In the Supreme Court, the judges do principally interpret the laws as are grounded in the Constitution, Rules of Law and Case Law. It is not in the Supreme Court that evidence is conjectured to suit particular cases.

Is Tsatsu not being carried away by the meaningless applauds he is receiving from a section of the Ghanaian public for his eloquence in the spoken English language? Let it be known to him that fluency in English does not win you your case in court if you fail to relate your arguments to the laws in place.

Does saying sorry put bread on the table? No! Therefore, court arguments not based on law, facts and credible evidence will never win you your case; period.

Has old age inflicted its concomitant problems on Tsatsu? It appears so if l should be honest with him or else, l cannot explain away his obstinacy in all his actions at the Supreme Court.

He refuses to take directions. He does contrary as requested to his own disadvantage. He is only focused on doing what is within the grand design and agenda of his client and his supporters.

It is only a spent force that will act so hopelessly as Tsatsu is depicting in court.

Is a defeated army of any further relevance to the war they fought? No!

I shall only advise him to make himself more relevant. If he feels he is old and incapable of stringing his arguments together in relevancy to the applicable laws, he had better retire as a lawyer.

It is not for nothing that at a certain age, we are officially required to proceed on retirement. You will have become weak both physically and mentally hence the need to retire, rest and enjoy your remaining days on earth before meeting the merciless Mr Death.