‘Recuse yourself! I seriously doubt your impartiality’- Dr. Opuni to Justice Dotse on AG review

Former COCOBOD Chief Executive Officer Dr. Stephen Opuni has filed fresh application requesting that Justice Jones Dotse recuse himself from the 7-Member panel of justices of the Supreme Court charged to determine review application by Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame in which the Leader of the bar and Chief Legal Counsel of the state is imploring the apex court to overturn its own previous decision in which it disallowed Justice Clemence Honyenuga from proceeding to hear the GHS271 million matter for which Dr. Opuni and Seidu Agongo have been being on trial more than four years.

In his oath dated 25 October 2021 on the side of his recusal application today under the steady gaze of the court’s decision on the review application, the former COCOBOD CEO Dr. Opuni said his consideration has been attracted to a generally flowed web distribution by one Kelvin Taylor, a Ghanaian telecaster in the United States of America wherein he affirmed that Mr. Dame, on 15 October 2021, went to the workplace of Justice Jones Dotse, the directing appointed authority and had a broad gathering with him.

Dr. Opuni said the supposed gathering, as indicated by Kevin Taylor, gone on for over two hours.

“… I express that the said two-hour meeting which, as indicated by the transmission of the said Kevin Taylor, occurred on the said Friday, the fifteenth day of October 2021, after the becoming aware of the oral contentions on Tuesday, the twelfth day of October 2021, in regard of the audit application, leaves me in genuine questions of the unprejudiced nature of his Lordship Justice Jones Dotse in the review application and persuades me that the Attorney General plans to utilize all means to guarantee that I am indicted.”

“… I have been exhorted by counsel and, verily accept same to be valid, that it is an adage and a set up rule of law that equity ought not exclusively be done yet clearly and undoubted be believed to be done”, he contended in his oath.

Dr. Opuni added: “Lamentably, the continuation of Justice Jones Dote will annihilate this hallowed legitimate banality. I ask that Justice Jones Dotse is recused as individual from the review to empower significance to be given to this legitimate banality.”

Moreover, Dr Opuni asserted that during Mr Dame’s residency as a Deputy Attorney General, he went to an official Q&A event coordinated by the Akufo-Addo government which was gone to by allies and supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on 6 April 2019 in London, England.

He said at the generally communicated meeting via web-based media and OMEGA Real time TV, a private TV slot, Mr Dame expressed: “Even concerning that, the arraignment has begun, and I can imply four instances of people, close connects with [the] John Mahama party”.

“The first is the Opuni preliminary. We as a whole realize Dr Opuni was one individual who was utilized by the Mahama organization to execute bad behaviors. Presently, there is an arraignment of the previous COCOBOD CEO, Dr Opuni. It is continuous and it includes different enormous amounts of cash as misfortunes to the state”, Dr Opuni’s affirmation cited the then-Deputy Attorney General as having said.

The above remarks, Dr Opuni contended, bias the case.

“… I am, in this manner, in no uncertainty that my case has been superfluously raised to a case of debasement of the NDC, the achievement of which would have a direction on the political fortunes of the current decision party of which the Attorney General is a nominee.”

Dr Opuni asserted further: “That I express that despite the fact that I was not at the said meeting, as expressed by the said Kevin Taylor broadcast, the direct of the learned Attorney General in giving a political bend to my case at the time he was Deputy Attorney General, along with the assertion by other political fat cats of the decision party, leaves me in presumably that it is in light of a legitimate concern for the public authority that I will be indicted for simply political reasons as in the expressions of the Attorney General”.

Two new adjudicators: Justices Ashie Kotey and Gertrude Tokornoo, were added to the five-part normal board by the Chief Justice for Tuesday’s decision on the AG’s audit application.

The conventional board that denied Justice Honyenuga comprised of Justices Jones Dotse, Gabriel Pwamang, Agnes Dodzie, Tanko Amadu and Avril Lovelace-Johnson.

Judges Gabriel Pwamang, Agnes Dodzie and Tanko Amadu were agreeable to the expulsion of Justice Honyenuga while Justices Jones Dotse and Avril Lovelace-Johnson contradicted in their 28 July running the show.

Mr Dame, who demands re-trying the case with another adjudicator will be expensive to the state, contended in his application that: “The choice of the standard seat of this Supreme Court dated 28 July 2021, contained principal and grave blunders, which have plainly brought about a significant unnatural birth cycle of equity, as it successfully disregarded the respected crucial and obligatory preconditions for a conjuring of the Supreme Court’s administrative ward for a request for certiorari to suppress a supposed mistake contained in a choice of a Superior Court”.

In his view, the conventional seat’s decision was “a choice which incorrectly withdraws from perceived standards in regards to the summon of this good court’s administrative ward is terrible in law, shows shamefulness and comprises an uncommon situation [thus] justifying a survey by the court”.

“It is our modest accommodation that a cautious utilization of significant standards in regards to the summon of both the administrative and audit wards of the Court will without a doubt bring about a saving of the choice griped of. To protect same will be a terrible and hazardous point of reference for Ghana law.”

Source : africaneditors.com