Afoko's Injunction Application Thrown Out By Court

An Accra Human Rights court has thrown out an application by the suspended National Patriotic Party(NPP) chairman Paul Afoko, who was seeking to stop the party's Extra ordinary Delegates Conference scheduled to be held in Sunyani this weekend from discussing matters relating to the chairmanship position.

Believing that he could be removed from office permanently by the highest decision making body of the party at the Delegates Conference, the suspended Chairman sought refuge in the court and filed an ex-parte motion seeking to restrain the party from taking that decision.

But lawyers of the NPP, including Godfred Dame, Prof Mike Ocquaye, Nana Obiri Boahene and Dr Adusei Poku, who got wind of his action and rushed to the court, argued that the 19th December congress has nothing to do with the removal of the plaintiff.

They told the court that Mr Afoko's reasons for seeking the injunction were baseless and highly speculative.

Afoko's legal team was led by Lawyer Osafo Buabeng, who led Mr Afoko’s legal team questioned why if the NPP had no plans to remove his client, they were in a haste to challenge the injunction application.

He told the court that his client had intercepted text messages from high ranking members of the party suggesting the chairman will be removed and prayed the court to restrain the party's delegates from taking any such decision.

The presiding Judge, Anthony Yeboah, in his ruling, stated that "before they succeed with an application like this they ought to prove that his removal may cause irreparable damage to him as a person before his suit will be considered."

He agreed with the defendants that even if the suspended chairman were to be removed during tomorrow's conference he will still have the opportunity to challenge that decision in court.

The court further ruled that since the plaintiff cannot show or prove to the court that his removal from the party would cost him irreparable damage, he cannot grant him the injunction because organising such events like what the NPP has done takes huge investment.

He therefore threw out Mr Afoko’s injunction application.

After the ruling, a clearly elated Deputy General Secretary of the NPP, Nana Obiri Boahene, accused the suspended chairman of trying to embarass the party in an interview with the media and added that "if you look at the NPP'S constitution before you can embark on the removal of a member, it is not a simple thing at all."