Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie has also recused himself from the ongoing Montie contemnors’ case.
Justice Baffoe-Bonnie recused himself because of his ties with one of the directors of the Accra-based, pro-government radio station Montie FM, on which the contemnors issued threats to kill justices of the Supreme Court.
It brings to three the number of justices who have recused themselves from the case. The first two were Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Wood and Justice Sule Gbadegbe.
Pundits Godwin Ako Gunn and Alistair Nelson threatened to kill justices of the Supreme Court when they spoke on a political programme called ‘Pampaso’ a few weeks ago.
Gunn and Nelson issued the threat as they discussed a case between the PNC’s Abu Ramadan and the Electoral Commission regarding the credibility and sanctity of the register of voters as far as the existence on the roll of people who registered with their National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards was concerned.
The two discussants warned the judges to deliver what in their view would be a favourable judgment on the matter or risk suffering the same fate (extrajudicial execution) meted out to three of their forebears in 1982 during the PNDC junta of Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings.
The Supreme Court had earlier ruled that the NHIS card was an invalid document as far as proving one’s nationality was concerned. That case was instanced by Mr Ramadan and one Evans Nimako about two years ago.
The two plaintiffs subsequently followed up to the same court to pray the justices to have the election management body delete from the poll roll all names of those who used the NHIS cards to register ahead of the 2012 general elections.
The court on May 5 delivered a judgment to that effect but lack of clarity on judgment compelled Mr Ramadan and Mr Nimako to return to the same court for clarification. The court then gave an emphatic order to the EC to delete the names after requesting that the election management body submit the list of ‘NHIS voters’.
The EC presented a list of 56,000 names. Mr Ramadan, his lawyers, the opposition NPP, and former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings challenged the authenticity of the list filed by the EC. Despite the controversy over the authenticity of the list, the 56,000 ‘NHIS voters’ were deleted by the EC and the affected persons given the opportunity to re-register with the appropriate documents in a 21-day exercise, which started on Monday July 18. That registration is happening alongside the exhibition by the EC, of the register of voters to enable the general public crosscheck their names and details on the roll.
Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Wood and Justice Gbadegbe, who were specifically named by the contemnors on the political radio programme, recused themselves at the last hearing.
The owners of the station, as well as the host of the show on which the threats were issued, have also been summoned by the court.
In court on Monday, Ako Gunn, who had insisted before the hearing that he never made any such threats and was never in the studio on the day in question, stuck to his guns. Presiding judge Justice Sophia Akufo requested that the audio tape of the threat be played in open court. A voice belonging to Mr Gunn was clearly heard making the threats. His lawyer subsequently pleaded on his behalf for the court to tamper justice with mercy.
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com/100.5FM
