@JnrAppau He shaaaaaaaaaaa
But Sibo nu America team wan give you secured $1m you rather Dey go Libya for $10m which we know for a fact that there is an untold story
Hon. Atta Akyea vrs Vacation Court attendance in Ghana
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“Order 79 of CI 47 has always empowered the Chief Justice to empanel Court any day, any day”
Hon. Atta Akyea, Jan 2009
Background
1. The Hon. Samuel Atta Akyea (then a leading NPP lawyer and head of Zoe, Akyea & Co., later MP for Abuakwa South) appeared in the Accra Fast Track High Court on Thursday, 1 January 2009 (New Year’s Day, a statutory public holiday) as counsel for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and its National Chairman, Peter Mac Manu
2. The 7 December 2008 presidential election produced no outright winner, leading to a runoff on 28 December between Nana Akufo-Addo (NPP) and John Evans Atta Mills (NDC). Most results left Mills with a narrow lead of roughly 23,000 votes. Voting in the Tain constituency (Brong Ahafo Region) could not take place on 28 December due to late arrival of materials and was rescheduled for Friday, 2 January 2009. With only about 53,000 registered voters, Tain had the potential to decide the outcome.
3. The NPP alleged significant irregularities (particularly in the Volta Region, an NDC stronghold) and sought to prevent the Electoral Commission (EC), chaired by Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, from declaring final results without addressing those allegations—and, in related filings, to restrain the Tain poll itself.
4. So on Wednesday, 31 December, 2008 (a working day), Hon. Atta Akyea and one Mrs Irene Addo, filed an ex-parte motion for an interim injunction to stop the EC from declaring the runoff results from Tain.
5. In response to this court process, the then Chief Justice, CJ Wood, issued a warrant authorizing a special sitting on the New Year’s Day holiday.
6. On 1st day of January, 2009, Justice Edward Amoako Asante in pursuance of the warrant issued by CJ Wood instructing him to hear the Ex Parte application, heard the matter. He ruled that the case was of such national importance that it could not proceed ex-parte.
7. He ordered the applicants to serve the writ and motion on the NDC and Prof. Atta Mills (as interested parties) by 10 a.m. on Friday, with responses due by 4 p.m. on Sunday, and fixed the substantive hearing for 5 January 2009.
8. Arguments in court included whether the Chief Justice could lawfully authorize a sitting on a public holiday (Order 79 of the High Court rules was cited by the NPP side; opponents argued only the President could do so via Executive Instrument). The judge proceeded on the basis of the warrant he held.
9. A further application specifically targeting the Tain vote was also pursued around the same time. The NPP publicly indicated it would boycott Tain (citing security/intimidation concerns), and the election went ahead on 2 January without a successful court order stopping it. Mills was subsequently declared the winner. Why the urgency / holiday sitting?
10. The timing was driven by the imminence of the Tain poll and the expected declaration of results. The NPP viewed the matter as extremely time-sensitive and of high national stakes. Atta Akyea’s firm later described the episode as one in which it sought (via interlocutory injunction) to prevent an election from being held in Tain under the prevailing circumstances.
11. The episode later became politically charged, including references in a leaked audio recording involving Atta Akyea that discussed the handling of the case inter alia. The core documented reason for the holiday court appearance, however, was the urgent NPP application to restrain the EC’s declaration of results amid the disputed 2008 presidential runoff and the pending Tain constituency vote.
So the Hon. Samuel Otwea Atta-Kyea has always been a vacation-court aficionado.