The Supreme Court has ordered the Koforidua Excessive Courtroom to halt its choice to condemn the Member of Parliament for Akwatia, Ernest Yaw Kumi, after he was cited for contempt.
In a 4-1 majority choice on Wednesday, twenty sixth February, the court docket dominated that the sentencing ought to be suspended till a ultimate willpower is made on a movement to overturn the ruling. Justice Gabriel Pwamang dissented, whereas the remaining 4 justices on the panel supported the keep.
This newest growth follows the lawmaker’s submitting of a certiorari and prohibition software on the Supreme Courtroom, in search of to overturn a contempt of court docket conviction issued in opposition to him on nineteenth February.
Counsel for the MP, Gary Nimako Marfo, argues within the software that Justice Emmanuel Senyo Amedahe of the Koforidua Excessive Courtroom dedicated an error in his ruling.
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He acknowledged:
A jurisdictional error of legislation is clear on the face of the file, as [the judge] assumed jurisdiction in [the] Parliamentary Election Petition for the Akwatia Constituency at a time when the Electoral Fee had not but revealed the Gazette Notification of the outcomes to which the election relates.
On 18th February, the court docket had issued a warrant for the arrest of Mr Kumi for contempt of court docket, following his defiance of an interim injunction that barred him from being sworn in because the MP for the disputed constituency.
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Presiding decide, Justice Senyo Amedahe, issued the bench warrant after noting Mr Kumi’s failure to seem all through the contempt proceedings.
Earlier, the court docket had restrained the MP from taking workplace pending the decision of a authorized dispute. Nevertheless, regardless of this directive, Kumi proceeded to take the oath of workplace in Parliament.
The Supreme Courtroom’s choice successfully places a maintain on any sentencing by the Koforidua Excessive Courtroom till the MP’s software is totally resolved.
