A member of the legal team of former President John Dramani Mahama, the petitioner in the 2020 election petition, Dr. Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, has rendered an unqualified apology to the Supreme Court for his unsavory remarks.
The embattled Member of Parliament (MP) for the Bolgatanga East Constituency in the Upper East Region was on Monday, February 22, cited for contempt of court by the Supreme Court.
Dr. Ayine’s charge followed what was described as his scandalous comments in reaction to a decision by the court to dismiss former President Mahama’s application to reopen his case to enable him (the petitioner) subpoena the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Jean Mensa.
The Court took strong exception to the comments by Dr. Ayine and ordered him to purge himself by using the same medium he made the contemptuous comments on to render an apology.
Speaking after the ruling of the court on his case, in an address to the media at the same premises where he earlier poured out his “scandalous comments” on the judges hearing the election petition, Dr. Ayine said “I am here in respect of the remarks that I made to you on the 16th of February after court proceedings. Those remarks were widely publicized by the media. Both mainstream and social media carried them, and they went viral. I have looked at what I said that day and I have come to the conclusion that I went overboard; I crossed the line with respect to the remarks that I made in attributing impropriety to the Supreme Court of Ghana.”
He added that “In carrying out my responsibilities, I had always made certain, that I explained the day’s proceedings to the understanding of the press corps and fellow citizens with civility and without seeking to attribute acts of impropriety to the Supreme Court or the respondents.”
“On the said day, I thought I had maintained that approach at the press briefing but on hindsight, I actually crossed the line, in suggesting that the court had a predetermined agenda, among others, to rule against the petitioner. It was not my intention to scandalize the court or bring it into disrepute.”
“I wish to apologize unreservedly to the court.”
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is expected to reconvene on the contempt case of Dr. Ayine on Thursday, February 25.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Ghana
