The Managing Director of Citi FM, Samuel Attah-Mensah has filed a writ at the Supreme Court, seeking to prevent the Speaker of Parliament, from acting as president in the absence of the President and his vice without being sworn in.
According to his lawyer, Nii Apatu, Mr. Attah-Mensah is also seeking an interpretation of the article in the constitution which requires that the Speaker take the oath of office each time he is to be sworn in as acting President.
He said on the Citi Breakfast Show on Tuesday: “We want the court to declare that on a proper and true interpretation of Article 60 (11 )and 60 (12) of the constitution that the speaker shall always, before commencing to perform the functions of the president, swear the oath subscribed to in the constitution in relation to the office of the president.”
The Speaker, Edward Doe Adjaho, on two occasions, refused to take the mandatory oath of office, while president President John Dramani Mahama was away in Burkina Faso and Vice President Amissah-Arthur was also out of the country on an official assignment.
Lawyer Apatu added that the the decision of the speaker not to take the oath was a clear violation of the constitution.
[contextly_sidebar id=”VjgmRGQF3C1nS7ZE0F7sJSzoXSZXaUwu”]The Speaker is reported to have consulted with the Chief Justice and the Chief Legislative Draftperson of the Attorney General’s office in making his decision but Lawyer Apatu believes that he erred as the only body mandated to interpret the constitution is the Supreme Court.
“Anything that has to do with the constitution must be decided by the Supreme Court and no other body. So if the constitution says the speaker shall [swear the oath] then that is what he must do.”
The Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Marietta Brew Appiah Opponghas has also been joined to the writ submitted to the Supreme Court.
Mr. Doe Adjaho had argued that per an oath he took in September 2013 which made him president then, there was no need for him to be sworn in again.
His decision however, has been met with opposition from the several observers including a private legal practitioner, Kwame Akuffo, who described it as “completely absurd.”
The Minority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, confirmed to Citi News that the decision had been agreed after consultations with the leadership in parliament and the Chief Justice but clarified that “it was a conclusion that was arrived at but I think that conclusion had even been arrived at before I got there but when I went there, I stated my position [that the Speaker should be sworn in].”
A political analyst, Dr. Richard Amoako Baah, however, believes that the Speaker was right in is refusal of the oath as “there is no provision in the 1992 Ghanaian Constitution that says that any time both the President and Vice President are absent from Ghana, the Speaker must be sworn in as acting president. There is nothing like that”
By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana