Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong is expected back at the High Court today, Thursday, October 15, 2020, to face contempt charges.
This follows a Supreme Court order on Wednesday, quashing proceedings so far excluding the charge sheet as well as the order to appear before the court.
The apex court also directed that the case should be reassigned to a new Judge.
Mr. Kennedy Agyapong’s lawyers invoked the supervisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, to check and halt a plethora of grave infractions they accused Justice Amos Wuntah Wuni of committing in the course of prosecuting the contempt charge.
The MP’s lawyer Alexander Afenyo Markin speaking to the media after the order on Wednesday said the Justices of the Supreme Court referenced the Montie 3 case before making a judgement.
Afenyo Markin said the Justices said the affected judges did not sit on the Montie 3 contempt case hence the decision.
“The Supreme Court, having found in our favour our allegation of bias and procedural irregularities against the High Court Judge, has today [Wednesday], prohibited the High Court Judge from dealing specifically with this matter. By law, since the prohibition is in place, it means that all proceedings by the judge are again a nullity. Meaning everything must start afresh with new procedures followed. We respect the court, we are thankful to the Supreme Court. It’s been our case to have this matter resolved and that has been our posture,” he said.
While at the Supreme Court, Kennedy Agyapong’s lawyers argued that Justice Wuni assumed jurisdiction in a matter that he wrongly assumed concerned him.
They also insisted that Justice Wuni demonstrated extreme hostility towards the lawmaker during the trial and even refused to be persuaded by any legal reasoning.
Lawyer for Kennedy Agyapong, Kwame Gyan, cited an off-the-record comment attributed to Justice Wuni, that, “if you touch a high tension pole you will be electrocuted”, which he said demonstrated the Judge’s hostility towards the Assin Central Member of Parliament.
The Supreme Court, however, noted, and as conceded by Kennedy Agyapong’s lawyers, that the High Court is operated under the country’s Court architecture and any High Court Judge was vested with the authority to preside over a contempt charge against the Court.
This notwithstanding, the Supreme Court, constituted by Justices Baffoe-Bonnie as President, Yaw Appau, Amadu Tanko, Yonny Kulendi and Gabriel Pwamang, decided that the High Court be reconstituted to hear the contempt charge against the Assin Central MP.
