Court strikes out Fati Seidu's petition
Drama in court over identity of alleged murderer
Bolgatanga (Upper East) 29 Jan. 2001
The Bolgatanga High Court on Friday struck out a petition by Hajia Fati Seidu, former NDC MP for Bawku Central, seeking a recount of ballots in the constituency for the December parliamentary election.
The Supervising High Court Judge, Mr. Justice Kwasi Apinanra, explained that another petition had not yet been disposed of and a certiorari application by Madam Hawa Yakubu, MP for area, was also pending.
The Supreme Court ruling on January 16, quashing the first petition, he said renders the second void and on that bases struck out the application as an abuse of the due process of law.
The court awarded a cost of 800,000 cedis in favour of Madam Hawa Yakubu and the Electoral Commission. The petitioner is to pay the cost within seven days.
Challenging the petitioner, Mr. Akoto Ampaw, counsel for Madam Hawa Yakubu, said it was wrong to file a second petition when the first one, which raises the same concern, is still pending.
Mr. Ampaw said the second petition was a gross abuse of the legal process and should not be entertained because the petitioner should have waited until the High Court disposed of the case.
Mr. Ben Kaba, counsel for Hajia Fati, said the fact that the first respondent had filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking to quash the ruling of the Bolgatanga High Court does not nullify the petition.
He said the second petition was to correct legal defects in the first one and should be considered since it was in good faith.
It would be recalled that on January 16, the Supreme Court by a unanimous decision quashed the Bolgatanga High Court ruling for a recount of ballot papers in the Bawku Central constituency.
This followed an application by Madam Hawa Yakubu urging it to quash the decision of the Bolgatanga High Court.
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Cape Coast (Greater Accra) 29 Jan
2001
There was drama at the Cape Coast
Circuit Court on Friday, when a man sitting comfortably among the crowd
suddenly found himself in police grips.
The mother of an 18-year-old boy,
who was allegedly murdered at Nkutumso near
Dunkwa on-Offin, spotted and
identified him as Anthony Prah, one of the accused
persons in the case.
The man, who was placed in custody
pending the verification of his identity, however, vehemently denied that he
was Prah and insisted he was Isaac Ofori.
This prompted the presiding judge,
Mr Justice Tom Bentil, to verify from the prosecutor, as to which of the two in
the centre of the drama was the real accused person.
Chief Inspector Hope Azasoo, told
the court that he did not know Prah in person and that it was the investigator
handling the case, who handed over the accused persons to him and asked that he
should be given time to enable him solve the problem.
In the dock with Anthony Prah,
alias Nana Prah, on provisional charges of murder, were Kweku Owusu, brother of
the deceased, Kwabena Amoah and Yaw Adjei, who are said to have murdered the
boy, Kojo Abass, for ritual purposes.
The case has been adjourned to
Tuesday, January 30th.
Prosecution said the four murdered
Abass on the banks of River Offin on July 24, last year, and removed parts of
his body, including the tongue, upper lip, left eyeball and the tip of his
penis and dumped the body in the river.
It said when Abass who had been
lured to the river side by Owusu and Adjei under the pretext of going fishing
with him failed to return home, a search was mounted for him leading to the
discovery of his body in the river three days later.
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