Sekondi-Ghana, Oct 31, GNA – Mr. David Ametefe, counsel for Dr. Grace Ayensu, the aggrieved National Democratic Congress (NDC) 2020 parliamentary candidate in the Essikado/Ketan election petition contention has filed a Notice of Discontinuance at the Sekondi High Court.
Mr. Ametefe told the high Court Judge, Dr. Richmond Osei Hwere that the decision to discontinue the case stemmed out of the many inactive political activities and the general need to create peace for the 2024 elections.
He said: “My Lord, though today was originally scheduled for case management, looking at how paralyzed the constituency had been since 2021 when this case began in terms of political activities…we have taken the decision to activate reconciliation mode and discontinue this case…we know we have a case, but we want the constituency to bounce back in terms of political activities”.
Meanwhile, Mr. Emmanuel Buabeng Tsibuah, the counsel who held brief for Mr. Frank Davies, lawyer for Mr. Joe Ghartey responding to the request said, “though we are not opposed to the request for discontinuance…we are not happy.
He continued: “My Lord… We all know how stressful it is to handle electoral petition in court, the sleepless night of research and fact finding, the financial commitment involved, and, in our case, we have to fly lawyers from Accra and accommodate them as well.”
Mr. Tsibuah therefore prayed to the court to award a reasonable cost to the tune of GHC500,000 cedis to enable the respondents to defray the high cost of managing the case in a year and 10 months.
However, Counsel Ametefe, opposed the proposed cost and urged the Judge to consider awarding cost on the premise of their Bond Security and some monies they had to pay for the case to continue.
Dr. Hwere, the sitting judge, after listening to both parties, announced that the request for discontinuance had been granted and the case struck out of the law books.
He explained that the election petition was a public interest matter and awarded a cost of GHS 20,000 in favour of both the first respondent and the second respondent-the Electoral Commission.
Mr. Ndede Nsiah, the Western Regional Chairman for the NPP Party told Journalists that the closure of the case presented the party a sigh of great relief to focus on the breaking the Eight Agenda.
