Hohoe NDC File for Judicial Review Flawed Supreme Court Judgment on Amewu

The National Democratic Congress (NDC)’s Parliamentary Candidate for Hohoe in the Volta Region, Prof. Margaret Kweku, is leading a new application to the Supreme Court seeking Judicial review in respect of the apex Court’s decision to quash the injunction that a Ho High Court had placed on John Peter Amewu from holding himself out as MP.

Together with four other persons from Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lolobi and Likpe (SALL) who were disenfranchised by the Electoral Commission (EC) during the elections, the applicants have listed 18 grounds on which the Supreme Court erred in its judgment.

A statement released by the NDC in Hohoe said the 44-page application had been filed today by Emile Atsu Agbakpe, Solicitor for Prof. Kweku and the four other interested parties.

“According to the very first ground for a review filed, the Supreme Court fundamentally erred when it referred to the right to vote as a provision falling within the Directive Principles of State Policy under the Constitution. The Supreme Court is also faulted for claiming that there is a determination to be made by the High Court, Ho as to whether the right to vote is a human right or not is also faulted since this is something that has been settled by a long line of decisions of the Supreme Court which are binding on all courts, including the Supreme Court itself,” the Hohoe NDC charged. 

“The second ground of fundamental error for which reason a review is being sought is that as the High Court, Ho has jurisdiction to enforce human rights and was exercising that jurisdiction, the Supreme Court should not have invoked its supervisory power against the Court,” said the statement signed by the NDC’s Chairman for Hohoe, George Bright Anni Bansah.

During the December 7 general elections, the EC had sparked serious electoral controversy by disenfranchising the people of SALL, who constitute over 17,000 and occupy 13 out of 30 electoral areas that make up Hohoe. 

Prof. Kweku and four other representatives from the SALL had secured an injunction at a Ho High Court against John Peter Amewu being allowed to hold himself as MP-elect for Hohoe.

In response to the injunction, however, the Attorney General had invoked the supervisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and asked it to quash the High Court injunction. The court had done just that saying that the case adjudicated by the Ho High Court was an election petition and not a human rights issue as claimed by Prof. Kweku and the four others.

This quashing paved way for John Peter Amewu to be sworn in as MP for Hohoe. However, Prof. Kweku and the four others say the Supreme Court erred in so many ways in giving the judgment. 

The concluding part of the Statement of Case for the Applicants reads; “Each of the grounds of our application for review have been established and the Court should, in the interests of justice, review its decision of 5th January 2021” allowing the case in the High Court, Ho, for the enforcement of the fundamental human rights of the Interested Parties “to run its course. The Respondents therein, including Amewu and the Attorney-General, have every opportunity to present their case to that court.”