Apologize for failing to seek justice for SALL residents – Franklin Cudjoe tells A-G
The founder and CEO of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, is demanding an apology from the Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, for failing to seek justice for the citizens of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe, and Lolobi (SALL).
According to Mr Cudjoe, the Minister for Justice should be sorry for defending the state against disenfranchised SALL citizens and offering no dignified advice to the presidency on resolving the debacle.
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“On behalf of the disenfranchised people of SALL, I call on the Attonery-General and Minister of Justice to render an unqualified apology for his dereliction of duty in seeking justice for the 30,000 citizens of SALL that were callously prevented from the last Parliamentary election.
“Failing to render an apology and taking honourable steps towards redeeming his government’s disturbing image as carefree and wicked hatred for SALL citizens would render his legacy as one that promoted the greatest illiberalism and disunity,” Mr. Cudjoe indicated in a post.
Background
The state, through the then Deputy Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, who is currently the country’s Attorney-General, filed a motion at the apex court to fight an injunction placed against John Peter Amewu by the Ho High Court.
The injunction was granted after some residents of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe, and Lolobi (SALL) argued that the Electoral Commission’s failure to allow them to vote in the 2020 parliamentary elections amounted to a breach of their rights.
The injunction secured by the residents prevented the commission from gazetting Mr Amewu as the winner of the Hohoe parliamentary polls.
According to them, the creation of the Oti Region, coupled with a recent Supreme Court decision and the failure of the EC to create a constituency for them, meant they did not vote for a parliamentary candidate in the 2020 election.
But the Attorney General jumped to the defence of the commission. It argued that the decision was not legally sound.
It was the case of Mr Dame that the Ho High Court erred when it granted the injunction.
Mr Dame said the case affects the rights of the residents of Hohoe Constituency to have an MP and the composition of the next parliament.
He argued that the High Court, in exercising its human rights oversight, had no jurisdiction to grant the injunction as the SALL residents did not follow the proper procedure.
According to him, residents of SALL do not have voting rights in Hohoe since the Supreme Court has already ruled that the area falls within the Oti region.
The Supreme Court ruled that the alleged breach of the rights of SALL residents was not caused by Mr Amewu, who had just put himself up for elections.
Therefore, any move to question his election should be challenged through an election petition, not a human rights action at the High Court.
This did not sit well with the SALL residents, who filed for a review and insisted the original panel committed errors of law.
However, the Supreme Court later affirmed its earlier decision that the Ho High Court erred when it granted an injunction against the gazetting of John Peter Amewu as Hohoe MP-elect.