Don’t defy SC over Sir John, Adorye summoning - Gabby warns NPP

Opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) member, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, has asked members and supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to avoid stretching their concerns beyond limits, for two party members who have been summoned by the Supreme Court for contempt.

“NPP must be calm”, Otchere-Darko urged in a post on his facebook wall.

He counseled the supporters and the party to “…show solidarity with [Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie] Sir John and Hopeson [Adorye] but let us not stretch it to defy the Court”.

“Remember, we are in court asking the justices to apply the law without fear or favour in the election petition,” the Danquah Institute Executive Director reminded his party.

Mr. Otchere-Darko, therefore, cautioned that: “We can't pick and choose when we want the law applied”.

According to him, “Hopeson has a solid defence and Sir John [has] strong mitigational circumstances,” and, therefore, said: “Let the law and facts work”.

As far as Sir John is concerned, the summons quoted The Enquirer Newspaper of Friday July 5, 2013 as having described the Presiding Justice of the nine-member Supreme Court panel, Justice William Atuguba, as a “hypocrite” and “a joker who pampers” the Counsel for the third respondent in the case, Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata, but “scolds” the Counsel for the petitioners Mr. Philip Addison.

Sir John, according to the summons, made the comments on private radio station Oman FM on June 24, 2013.

The NPP General Secretary is also quoted by the summons to have said that Justice Atuguba always wore a frown that made him resemble “a voodoo deity”.

The summons further quoted The Enquirer as saying that Sir John had said “Justice Atuguba, by his actions, was up to hypocritical antics that is intended to lead NPP not to get the opportunity to play a tape recording of the Electoral Commissioner Dr Kwadwo Afari- Gyan’s voice, declaring that ‘No verification, no vote,’ so that the president can win the case.”

The court, therefore, asked Sir John to come and “show cause why you should not be committed to prison for contempt of this court, thereby scandalising the court, lowering the authority and credibility of this court in the eyes of the general public, and exciting hatred and ill-will towards 1st and 2nd respondent herein.”

Hopeson Adorye, on the other hand, has been summoned for threatening to decapitate supporters of the governing National Democratic Congress if the Supreme Court ruled against his party’s 2012 flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and the two other petitioners in the case.

The summon quotes Hopeson Adorye as having said: “We shall cut the heads of NDC supporters if Supreme Court declares President Mahama winner”.

The alleged comment was published in the Monday July 8, 2013 edition of the Daily Post Newspaper.

He is quoted to have said on Obuasi-based private station Time FM, on June 26, 2013, that “the NPP will…go on a head cutting spree, cutting off the heads of NDC supporters should the Supreme Court declare President Mahama the winner.”

The summons said the paper also quoted Mr. Adorye as saying that “the claim by fellow NPP activist Samuel Awuku that the Supreme Court judges were biased and are hypocrites was an appropriate comment for which Awuku should not have apologized.”

The summons, therefore, asked Hopeson to come and “show cause why you should not be committed to prison for contempt of this court, thereby scandalising the court, lowering the authority and credibility of this court in the eyes of the general public, and exciting hatred and ill-will towards 1st and 3rd respondent herein.”