Prez Mahama Is Deliberately Delaying Our Petition - Ayikoi Otoo

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Created on Friday, 05 April 2013 00:00

Prez Mahama Is Deliberately Delaying Our Petition - Ayikoi Otoo

04 April 2013

Former Attorney-General and chairman of the New Patriotic Party’s Constitutional Committee, Lawyer Ayikoi Otoo, has called for the amendment of Article 64 (2) of the 1992 Constitution, insisting that the sitting president is using it as an advantage to stall the NPP’s petition filed at the Supreme Court which is challenging his legitimacy.

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He explained that if the said article is amended, petitions filed at the Supreme Court would be accelerated to ensure the legit president is sworn. He suggested that any president-elect, whose legitimacy has been challenged, shouldn’t be sworn until matters have been cleanly resolved.

Article 64 (2) states that: “A declaration by the Supreme Court that the election of the President is not valid shall be without prejudice to anything done by the President before the declaration”.

In an interview with Okay FM, the former Attorney-General advised the judiciary and parliament to take a cue from how the Kenyan election petition suit was handled.

He empathically noted that looking at the way President Mahama and the NDC responded to issues, he is confident that the president is doing all he can to delay justice.

According to him, the disputed president should only be sworn-in after the case has been heard and he has been declared the legitimate winner of an election by the Supreme Court.

"..if nobody is sworn in, everybody would see the need for some urgency to ensure that this case is heard quickly and faster. Whoever wins eventually, would take over the office but with our current constitution, it doesn’t make for speedy resolution of the presidential election challenge," Lawyer Ayikoi Otoo said.

Source: Chris Joe Quaicoe/Peacefmonline.com