Executive Director of policy think tank, Danquah Institute, Mr. Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko has described as “unfair” fellow member of the opposition New Patriotic Party, Sammy Awuku’s recent description of the Supreme Court as “hypocritical and selective”.
Mr. Awuku’s criticism was aimed at demanding equity from the court in its reprimand of the Daily Guide newspaper by the bench when the nine-member panel served its final warning against contemptuous and prejudicial comments regarding the case.
He was subsequently hauled before the court and reprimanded by the bench for his comments. The court, as punishment barred Mr. Awuku from the remainder of the hearing.
Mr. Asare Otchere-Darko, however, says though Mr. Awuku had a legitimate concern in raising issue regarding equity, the criticism was “inherently unfair” to the bench because he assumed that court was in a position to monitor all media comments regarding the ongoing election petition.
“The court cannot be expected to know everything that is said and written; so what they hear or see, they can use that as an example to tell the whole country that ‘look we do not condone this kind of behaviour or conduct,” Mr. Otchere-Darko noted.
He, however, said: “…You can’t necessarily say under normal circumstances [that] Sammy was wrong to even accuse the court of being selective” but added that: “That accusation itself is not inherently fair because the court will not necessarily know everything that is being said or written”.
“…Look there are over 100 radio stations…talking about the Supreme Court, off course you don’t expect the Judges to know what happens in Kintampo and the rest of the country…It has to be brought to their attention and what is brought to their attention is what they comment [about]”, Mr. Otchere-Darko emphasised when he spoke on Joy FM’s news analysis programme ‘Newsfile’ on Saturday June 29, 2013.
He said Mr. Awuku’s criticism in itself “may not be wrong, but it may have implications particularly when you have a divided nation”.
