Former Deputy Attorney-General and Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga East, Dr Dominic Akuritinga Ayine,  has expressed grave displeasure about the Attorney-General Godfred Dame, for the way and manner he went about applying for the expeditious hearing of the injunction application by Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor against the consideration of the new ministers of President Akufo-Addo.

Dr. Ayine explained that, when the A-G applies for an abridgment of time in a case filed at the court, it is paramount to serve notice to the lawyer for the other party in order to prevent any form of surprises.

According to the learned lawyer and legislator, the lawyer for the applicant for the injunction was not informed in this particular case.

“If you apply for a speedy hearing of the case you ought to serve the lawyer for the other party, that was not what was done in this particular case.

He said to journalists in Accra on Wednesday, March 27, “It is unethical to ambush the lawyer for the other party.”

In an earlier statement, the Attorney-General, Mr Godfred Dame had said that he applied for a speedy hearing of Dafeamekpor’s injunction application against the consideration of the ministerial nominees.

Mr. Godfred Dame explained that the Court Act and the Constitution permit a party to a case to apply for expeditious hearing of the case hence he does not understand the criticism against the Supreme Court for hearing this matter quickly.

The Attorney-General’s comments come on the heels of the backlashes by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) against Chief Justice Gertrude Torkonorr, in the scheduling of political cases in the Supreme Court. The NDC accused her of being biased against them.

The party’s concern was with regards to the listing of the case filed by Mr Dafeamekpor, for hearing, ahead of the case of Richard Dela Sky v. the Parliament of Ghana and the Attorney-General.

According to a statement issued by the NDC on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, it was intriguing that “Richard Dela Sky filed his writ of summons in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2024, on the 5th of March 2024. This was almost two (2) clear weeks before Hon. Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor filed his writ of summons on 18th March, 2024 challenging the constitutionality of the latest ministerial nominations by the President.”

Speaking to Journalists in Accra after the Supreme Court dismissed Dafeamekpor’s application, A-G Godfred Dame said, “the duty to fix the date for the hearing rests with the registry of the Supreme Court and I do not understand where this business of people actually scrutinizing when applications are fixed for hearing or why this case has not been fixed for hearing, came from.

“Back in the day, if you file an application in the Supreme Court of Ghana it takes you even three months for you to get a date for a hearing. It is only after a party has made an application for an expeditious determination of the process that the matter will come up for hearing.  Even the record show that in this particular case, I specifically applied for an expeditious determination of the matter so it is not the Supreme Court of Ghana picking and choosing which location should hear and not to hear.

“My first application for an expedited hearing of a matter in the Supreme Court, I did it way back in 2006 and I did another one in 2013 when we were in opposition. So it is always the prerogative of the Supreme Court registry to fix applications for hearing and if the date for the hearing has not been fixed or it is too far it is incumbent on the party to apply for the CJ in accordance with the court act and constitution for an expedited hearing.”

He further described the injunction application by Dafeamekpor against the consideration of the ministerial nominees, as frivolous and an abuse of the court process after stating that it was an application was an attempt to frustrate the work of the government.

Asked why it appears he is taking a keen interest in only matters that favor the government and not filing for an expedited hearing in the application against anti-gay bill, Mr. Dame said “we have filed a relevant affidavit in opposition in that matter, so I think all these comments are unwanted and indeed are baseless. We actually filed our opposition to the affidavit in answer to the Richard Sky matter before we filed the affidavit in answer today to this one."

“It is most instructive that parliament itself was opposed to this application for interlocutory injunction by Dafeamekpor and I find it very interesting because the same Speaker of Parliament who earlier on adjourned proceedings in my view wrongly, on account of the pendency of this application then later on somersaulted and came to the supreme court and opposed the application and that is a point of interest to me.  I think it shows clearly that the application clearly was frivolous and it ought not to be any manipulation of what went on in court, even parliament itself was opposed to the application.”

He further added, “It is most unfortunate that persons who file processes before the court and then fail to take an interest in it. Indeed even when the same application for interlocutory injunction is pending has not been determined, a day before they proceed to go and file another application for interlocutory injunction, there cannot be a greater demonstration of a desire to abuse the court process than this. Clearly, it shows an attempt to frustrate the republic from pursuing its business and all. That is why it is necessary that as lawyers for the Republic, we take a keen interest in what happens and we make sure that such things are dealt with so that the state business can proceed.”

On Wednesday, March 27 the Supreme Court dismissed an injunction application filed by Dafeamekpor against Parliament’s approval of ministerial nominees by President Akufo-Addo.

By a unanimous decision, the apex Court said the injunction application is frivolous and an abuse of the court process. Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor had filed an injunction restraining Parliament from vetting and approving new ministers as well as reshuffled ministers given various portfolios. He was praying the court to deem the action by President Akufo-Addo as unconstitutional.