Former deputy attorney general under the Mahama administration Dr Dominic Ayine has been cited for contempt by the Supreme Court over comments he made against the apex court.
In a post-trial media interview this week, Ayine said the Supreme Court’s basis for dismissing Mahama’s motion to reopen his case in the ongoing election petition hearing smacks of a predetermined agenda to rule against the petitioner.
He said: “It is not true that there is only one issue that needs to be determined in this matter. I am surprised that the Supreme Court itself having set down five key issues to be determined is now reducing the issue to one, which is whether the extent to which the evidence that we have led shows that no one got more than 50% of the votes in accordance with Article 63 of the Constitution.”
“We have made it abundantly clear in the petition that there were a number of infractions, we are contesting even the constitutionality of the declaration that was made. We are saying that she violated Article 23 because she is an administrative body, we have also said the exercise of discretion was contrary to Article 296 of the Constitution,” he said.
He added: “These are all germane issues under the constitution and laws of Ghana. And to reduce the petition into a single issue petition is rather unfortunate and smacks of a predetermined agenda to rule against the petitioner in this matter”.
The seven-member court views those comment as prejudicial and Dr Ayine will be served with the process to start the contempt process by appearing before the court.
