US-based Ghanaian lawyer, Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare
A US-based Ghanaian lawyer, Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare, aka Kwaku Azar has reached out to the Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe and Lolobi(SALL)people as part of efforts towards the reparation of the wrongs made against the people.
Professor Kwaku Asare held talks with prominent Elders of the SALL movement to get an update of the ‘fight’ and offer his support.
The President of IMANI-Africa, Franklin Cudjoe also graced the crucial meeting.
Kwaku Azar believes that a constitutional crisis was created on December 6 when the EC issued an unconstitutional directive to voters of these areas to stay away from the parliamentary elections.
The outspoken lawyer has maintained that Parliament has no such discretion when it comes to the disenfranchisement of #SALL, insisting that “The Speaker and Members must call for an immediate atonement of that cardinal sin.”
Eligible voters within areas in the newly created district; namely Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe, and Lolobi, were only allowed to take part in the presidential election but could not vote in the parliamentary election because a constituency had not been created for them.
This triggered an ex parte application filed by residents of the Guan District who were not given the opportunity to vote in the parliamentary elections on December 7, 2020.
The Ho High Court presided over by Justice George Boadi on December 23, 2020, granted an injunction after SALL residents argued that their inability to vote in the just-ended parliamentary election amounted to a breach of their rights.
But the State through a Deputy Attorney General, Godfred Dame, filed a motion at the Supreme Court to fight the injunction placed on Amewu by the Ho High Court.
The Supreme Court in a unanimous decision quashed the orders made by the Ho High Court placing an interim injunction on the gazetting and swearing-in of Member of Parliament for the Hohoe constituency, John Peter Amewu.
The panel however declined the AG’s request seeking an order to prohibit the High Court of Justice George Boadi, from further hearing or conducting proceedings in the said suit.