Mahama’s refusal to mount witness box throws his case away

Deputy General Secretary for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Obiri Boahen says the former president, John Mahama, threw his own case away when he failed to mount the witness box as a principal witness to his own petition.

He added that even in criminal cases, a plaintiff succeeds on the strength of his or her case and under no circumstance, should a plaintiff wait upon the strength of the defendant’s case.

That is the position of law, he said on Okay FM on Friday, February 12, 2020.

“The position of the law says that there should be an end to litigation” Another position of the law he said is that “Court proceedings, court processes are not ornamental,” Nana Obiri Boahen stated.

These positions of the law do not permit anyone to pick and choose what pleases him or her in a matter of legal litigations, for which reason it becomes an ‘out of place situation’ to subpoena the chairperson of the first respondent to appear as a hostile witness after she had been exempted by the court to not testify in the ongoing election petition.

Background

A unanimous decision by the Supreme Court on Thursday, February 11, upheld the application by the 1^st Respondent, Mrs. Jean Mensah, who is also the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission and 2nd Respondent, President Nana Akufo-Addo, to not call any witnesses in the ongoing election petition hearing.

The ruling by the highest court of the land tags along the verbal compelling arguments made by the counsels for 1^st and 2nd Respondents that their clients should not be compelled to testify.

The reason the 1st and 2nd respondents refused to call their witnesses to adduce evidence is that the petitioner, upon the testimony of their 3 witnesses have not been able to prove to them that they have a case to which they have to respond to.

They then urged the court to rely on the testimonies of the petitioner’s witnesses to advance judgement on the election petition case.

Though counsel for the petitioner put up an argument to have the court compel the witnesses of the 1st and 2nd respondents to adduce evidence, the Judges of the Supreme Court unanimously dismissed the request saying that the court cannot do that because it is a cardinal rule in the legal jurisdiction.