Supreme Court Dismisses Tsikata’s Challenge of Akufo-Addo Judge On SALL Case

The Supreme Court today dismissed a petition by Lawyer Tsatsu Tsikata, asking for Justice Clemence Hornyenugah to be removed from the panel hearing the case concerning the disenfranchisement of 17,000 people of 13 electoral areas within the Hohoe Constituency.

The presiding judge, Justice Yaw Apau, giving a unanimous ruling, dismissed the petition on grounds that fears of bias expressed by Mr. Tsikata were not convincing to prove that Horneyenugah’s longstanding emotional ties with John Peter Amewu, the man controversially declared as MP-Elect for the area, would influence his judgment.

“The ground of objection raised is simply that Justice Honyenugah has a long-standing relationship with the interested party. In our view, any allegation of potential bias is a serious matter and therefore must attend to it favourably only with evidence,” the Supreme Court panel ruled.

However, Mr. TSIKATA had insisted that he had evidence to prove Honyenugah’s ties to Amewu, who is an indirect beneficiary of the legal case being fought against the people of SALL by the Deputy Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame.

However, the Supreme Court ruled: “Incidentally, the Hohoe MP-elect is not necessarily a direct party to the case, but a beneficiary who may stand to benefit from the ruling. There is no affidavit to support grounds of personal relation. There is no merit in the objection raised and is hereby overruled.”

 Other members of the panel are Justices Marful Sau, Torkonoo and Amadu Tanko ruled that the allegation has no substance and the interest of John Peter Amewu is remotely connected to the case at the Apex Court.

The Deputy Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame had represented the Attorney General’s Department which went to court against the Ho High Court after the High Court had injuncted Peter Amewu from holding himself out as MP-elect on account of the fact that the people of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lolobi and Likpe (SALL) were disenfranchised by the Electoral Commission.

Collectively the people of the so-called SALL area span 13 constituencies out of the 30 that make up Hohoe and are said to be about 17,000.

Meanwhile, the Justice Hornyenuga that Mr. Tsikata suspects of likely bias is the same Justice Hornyenuga who virtually campaigned for President Akufo-Addo last year when the President nominated him for appointment to the Supreme Court Bench.

Hornyenuga who was then an Appeals Court judge had said President Akufo-Addo deserved a second term, a thing that got him peppered by the Minority in Parliament when he faced the Appointments Committee.

He would later apologize for the open bias however, many in the public regard him as one of the many pro-NPP judges that Akufo-Addo has infested the Supreme Court with.