Contrary to claims by some loyalists of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo that Paul Awentami Afoko’s appeal to the National Council (NC) of the New Patriotic Party will come to naught, an eminent jurist has posited that the embattled NPP chairman’s petition is “watertight” and will most likely sway NC to overturn the decision of NEC.
According to the learned law lecturer, the grounds of the appeal by the suspended National Chairman “are grave issues fundamental in law and central in fair trial, and no judicial or quasi-judicial body worth its salt would gloss over them.”
In an exclusive chat with The aL-hAJJ on strict condition of anonymity, the respected retired judge and lecturer said “I don’t want to be seen prejudging the case, but as a retired judge, the issues raised by Mr. Afoko in his appeal to the party’s highest body borders on rules of natural justice which is fundamental in law, key to fair trial and central in the Ghanaian constitution. So far as I’m concerned, the National Council of the NPP will have no option than to reverse the decision of the disciplinary committee and party’s NEC.”
“Of course the National Council may uphold the decisions of the Disciplinary Committee and NEC, but I can assure you with all certainty that if Afoko decides to pursue this in court, he will get the desired remedy,” he stated.
Paul Afoko, who was elected the NPP National Chairman in April 2014, was suspended indefinitely at an emergency NEC meeting at the party’s headquarters at Asylum Down in Accra on Friday, October 23, 2015.
The NPP National Executive Committee (NEC) voted unanimously on October 23, 2015 to endorse recommendations by the party's disciplinary committee to suspend Mr Afoko after receiving a petition from the party’s Council of Elders and two senior members of the NPP from the Northern regions.
However, the embattled National Chairman, who per the party constitution has 21 days to respond last Monday petitioned the National Council of the party against constitutional breaches that led to what he described as the usurpation of his post.
The petition states, among other things, that the National Disciplinary Committee receipt of the petition of grievances in writing from the National Council of Elders directly without giving the said petition of grievances first to the NC was in violation of Articles 4(3)(d) and 4(5)(a) of the NPP Constitution.
It added that the National Council of Elders, as a body, had no capacity to make a complaint in writing against any member of the NPP, while the petition by NEC against him “not being disciplinary infractions was submitted to the DC in violation of the NPP constitution”.
“That the DC’s refusal to give a ruling on the preliminary objections raised by the National Chairman’s lawyers to the petition of the National Council of Elders and the DC by never at any time during its proceedings informing Mr Paul Afoko lawyers that the said petition was withdrawn but used as part of its basis to recommend the National Chairman’s indefinite suspension violate his rights to a fair trial.”
Mr Afoko also raised a number issue in the petition, which include Professor Mike Oquaye and Madam Ama Busia being members of the National Council of Elders of the NPP who sat and heard their own petition as a clear and egregious breach of the rules of natural justice and of the provisions of Article 4(5) (b).
He also pointed out that the NEC meeting did not have a quorum as important personalities such as the party’s flag-bearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo; former President J A Kufuor, the National Chairman himself, the General Secretary, Mr Kwabena Agyei Agyepong; Second Vice Chairman, Mr Sammy Crabbe, and the Women’s Organiser, Madam Otiko Djaba, were all not at the said meeting.
But former head of the Political Science Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Dr Amoako Baah, said the petition by the embattled chairman of the will amount to nothing because he acted a bit too late.
“Paul Afoko’s advisors are doing nothing to help him. If a whole chairman has been suspended, they could have acted immediately by petitioning instead of waiting that long to petition. In fact, even if he petitions, no one will give him a listening ear. It won’t work,” he stated on an Accra-based Okay FM Tuesday.
However, the retired judge stated that “whether Afoko acted too late or not is immaterial since the constitutionally mandated 21 days have not elapsed. What we must avert our minds to is the issues raised in the petition. And from where I seat, Afoko has a strong case.”
<<Print>>