NPP Lawyers Clash
By Daily Guide - Daily Guide Ghana Elections | Thu, 08 Jan 2009
B.J. da Rocha (L) and Atta Akyea (R) B.J. da Rocha, a legal luminary and leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has come under intense fire over an interpretation of the Constitution as regards the declaration of election results, from a man he taught at the Ghana School of Law.
Atta Akyea who is also a leading NPP member and newly-elected MP for Abuakwa South, in reaction to a media report about his former teacher's position, stated that Mr. da Rocha's interpretation of the Constitution about the subject is a skewed one.
The legal luminary's position, he posited, is intended to justify the position of those who believe that the Electoral Commission (EC) should declare whatever results it deems fit even if, as he put it, “justice, fair play and reasonableness should suffer.”
He pointed out that the EC, in the interest of peace, can be a conveyor belt of electoral fraud and still be beyond legal scrutiny, a position he added is held by those he described as “well-placed NPP gurus with play-it-safe mentality.”
He described as erroneous, Mr. da Rocha's statement that a court cannot tell the EC to hold an election or not to do so, adding that the legal luminary was also wrong in explaining that “it was only when an election had been held and the results declared that any aggrieved person could go to court and give reasons why he or she thought the results were flawed.”
Continuing to punch holes in da Rocha's objections, he rubbished his former teacher's position that “we do not want a situation when on January 7 there is nobody to be sworn in as President in succession to President Kufuor, because he cannot continue to stay in office even one minute after his term has expired.”
In his explanation, Atta Akyea stated that this panicky position has been taken care of by the Constitution because as he put it, the parliamentary election and Parliament will have been duly constituted and a Speaker who could act as President elected.
He added though that “it does not matter any more because those who really matter believe that expediency and the path of least resistance is to be preferred over justice, reasonableness and fair play.”
Mr. da Rocha, his former student noted, erred when he ignored what for him is an elementary principle of law that a document must be read as a whole and not just in bits and pieces.
This error, he went on, led the legal luminary to ignore what he said is a salient portion of the Constitution which makes the EC amenable to the powers of the Court.
Explaining further, Mr. Akyea stated that the Constitution imbued with a spirit, is the fountain head for the authority which each of the three arms of government possesses and exercises.
The EC, according to him, is therefore subject to the jurisdiction of the court in the performance of its functions, adding “it will be counterintuitive to argue that the EC has unfettered powers and reasonable men should stand by and even endure fraud and collusion until the wrong is completed. That will be most absurd.”
Presenting a scenario to buttress his position, he said, “granted the EC is in cahoots with the Noko Fio Party to rig a second round of presidential elections, according to the thinking of uncle B.J. and aggrieved person has no legal remedy until the official theft is completed. Would it accord with the ends of justice?
I leave the answer with your conscience.”
The EC being a creature of the Constitution, he maintained, exercises administrative functions and discretions subject to the Constitution, adding “the EC cannot be a law unto itself.”
He posed a rhetoric question to further make his point when asked: “have you heard of an authority exercising discretionary power who asserted that there is a lot of criminal conduct undergirding your complaint and it is purely for the police to investigate but as to how that impinges on the electoral results, I am not interested in?”
Peace, as he put it, is superior to injustice, that is why innocent Jesus Christ was hanged on the cross. He stressed that “I get uneasy when enlightened men attempt to sit the law upside down.”
The genesis of Lawyer Atta Akyea's beef is in the earlier decision by the NPP to seek legal means to get the EC withhold declaration of the final election results following the party's position that there were irregularities in the Volta Region polls.
By A.R. Gomda
Atta Akyea who is also a leading NPP member and newly-elected MP for Abuakwa South, in reaction to a media report about his former teacher's position, stated that Mr. da Rocha's interpretation of the Constitution about the subject is a skewed one.
The legal luminary's position, he posited, is intended to justify the position of those who believe that the Electoral Commission (EC) should declare whatever results it deems fit even if, as he put it, “justice, fair play and reasonableness should suffer.”
He pointed out that the EC, in the interest of peace, can be a conveyor belt of electoral fraud and still be beyond legal scrutiny, a position he added is held by those he described as “well-placed NPP gurus with play-it-safe mentality.”
He described as erroneous, Mr. da Rocha's statement that a court cannot tell the EC to hold an election or not to do so, adding that the legal luminary was also wrong in explaining that “it was only when an election had been held and the results declared that any aggrieved person could go to court and give reasons why he or she thought the results were flawed.”
Continuing to punch holes in da Rocha's objections, he rubbished his former teacher's position that “we do not want a situation when on January 7 there is nobody to be sworn in as President in succession to President Kufuor, because he cannot continue to stay in office even one minute after his term has expired.”
In his explanation, Atta Akyea stated that this panicky position has been taken care of by the Constitution because as he put it, the parliamentary election and Parliament will have been duly constituted and a Speaker who could act as President elected.
He added though that “it does not matter any more because those who really matter believe that expediency and the path of least resistance is to be preferred over justice, reasonableness and fair play.”
Mr. da Rocha, his former student noted, erred when he ignored what for him is an elementary principle of law that a document must be read as a whole and not just in bits and pieces.
This error, he went on, led the legal luminary to ignore what he said is a salient portion of the Constitution which makes the EC amenable to the powers of the Court.
Explaining further, Mr. Akyea stated that the Constitution imbued with a spirit, is the fountain head for the authority which each of the three arms of government possesses and exercises.
The EC, according to him, is therefore subject to the jurisdiction of the court in the performance of its functions, adding “it will be counterintuitive to argue that the EC has unfettered powers and reasonable men should stand by and even endure fraud and collusion until the wrong is completed. That will be most absurd.”
Presenting a scenario to buttress his position, he said, “granted the EC is in cahoots with the Noko Fio Party to rig a second round of presidential elections, according to the thinking of uncle B.J. and aggrieved person has no legal remedy until the official theft is completed. Would it accord with the ends of justice?
I leave the answer with your conscience.”
The EC being a creature of the Constitution, he maintained, exercises administrative functions and discretions subject to the Constitution, adding “the EC cannot be a law unto itself.”
He posed a rhetoric question to further make his point when asked: “have you heard of an authority exercising discretionary power who asserted that there is a lot of criminal conduct undergirding your complaint and it is purely for the police to investigate but as to how that impinges on the electoral results, I am not interested in?”
Peace, as he put it, is superior to injustice, that is why innocent Jesus Christ was hanged on the cross. He stressed that “I get uneasy when enlightened men attempt to sit the law upside down.”
The genesis of Lawyer Atta Akyea's beef is in the earlier decision by the NPP to seek legal means to get the EC withhold declaration of the final election results following the party's position that there were irregularities in the Volta Region polls.
By A.R. Gomda
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