By Edzorna Francis Mensah
A press statement issued in Accra on Monday, 25th March, 2024 signed by the Minority leader Cassiel Ato Forson has suggested that Attorney-General’s advice vindicates the Speaker of Parliament with respect to ongoing debates following the Speaker’s decision not to approve Ministerial nominees over a lawsuit by MP, Rockson-Nelson K. Etse Defeamekpor.
According to the statement, The Attorney-General’s claim that Mr. Speaker erred because there was no m injunction in respect of the above-named suit is not borne out by the facts and that, “the Speaker of Parliament rather stands vindicated in his decision to err on the side of caution, in view of the expressed injunctive relief that had been stated in the writ of summons, a copy of which was duly served on the Rt. Hon. Speaker on the 19th of March, 2024. By law, the plaintiff had 14 days to file a statement of case and an application for interlocutory injunction from the day that the Writ of Summons was issued”.
The Minority said it is worth noting that whereas the Attorney-General in the letter to the Speaker purported to fault the Speaker’s ruling in the issue referenced above, he rather vindicated the position taken by the Speaker who merely took a cue from a precedent that was set by President Akufo-Addo based on an “advice” from this same Attorney-General.
“On the contrary, it would be recalled that President Akufo-Addo informed members of the Diplomatic Corps at a meeting at the Peduase Lodge on 4th March, 2024, of a supposed court case at the Supreme Court. The President even went on to state that he was restrained by the filing of a Writ of Summons from assenting to the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill.
It turned out that as of the time that the President was speaking to members of the
Diplomatic Corps on the 4th of March, 2024, the writ had not yet been filed in the Supreme Court. The writ was subsequently filed on 5th March, 2024”.
……between the Rt. Hon. Speaker, who was served with a writ of summons, and the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who acted on the advice of the same Attorney-General on an injunction from a non-existent writ, which of them showed fidelity to the law? The answer obviously is the Rt. Hon.
Speaker of Parliament.
Cassiel Ato Forson submitted that, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Dame needs nobody to tell him to stop exposing himself by the unwarranted attacks on the Rt. Hon. Speaker of Parliament. Mr. Dame has demonstrated time without number that he cannot prioritise the national interest over his party’s parochial and self-serving interest, “Consistently, he behaves like a regime lawyer and constantly displays arrogance and
unbridled partisanship in the discharge of his duties. If there ever was a time that decoupling the position of the Attorney-General from that of the Minister of Justice was pressing and relevant, it is now. Clearly, the conduct of Hon. Godfred Dame as Attorney-General and Minister of Justice epitomises all that is inherently wrong in keeping both positions in the same person”.
