'Mad' Lawyer Storms Court

A strange spectacle unfolded at the Supreme Court yesterday during the hearing of the ongoing election petition. Lawyers on both sides of the electoral dispute had barely finished announcing themselves, when an unknown lawyer, Benony Tony Amekudzi, sprang to the floor to lay a motion before the court. In a loud voice, spiced with ample gesticulation and an exotic accent, Mr. Amekudzi, without going through the standard procedures, launched himself at the bewilded panel of nine Supreme Court Justices and tried to move a motion to the effect that a sitting President could not be sued or joined as a defendant or a respondent to a lawsuit or petition. It is unclear how he sneaked into the front row, where the case was being argued, since he was usually spotted sitting behind the NDC executives and having the same accreditation as the other NDC members. Daily Guide gathered that Mr. Amekudzi is a staunch sympathizer of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC). According to Nana Ato Dadzie, a member of the NDC legal team, the gatecrasher had apparently received an express blessing from President Mahama to add to the team of lawyers arguing from him in the Supreme Court. When he sprang to his feet, lawyers from all sides of the divide looked at him in disbelief for such an audacious diversion of attention from the matter currently being argued in court. He died so by circum venting the standard processes of filing for such motions in the Supreme Court. In the Supreme Court, the standard procedure is for such an application to be accompanied by an affidavit. Mr. Amekudzi had none. The bewilded court audience shifted uneasily and murmured in amusement at the motion that Mr. Amekudzi was seeking to smuggle into the fray. The lawyer claim he was filling as Amicus Curiae (Friend of the Court) because his motion was in the supreme interest of the general public. Later, the panel sought the views of the legal teams of both the petitioners and respondents on Mr. Amekudzi�s strange intervention. Counsel for the petitioners, Philip Addison argued that �My lords, we do not think that this application is properly before the court�An Amicus Curiae brief is supposed to assist the court in determining a matter that is of public interest. In this instance, this application has been brought in support of the First Respondent and, therefore, it ceases to be an Amicus Curiae brief. It is partisan; it is intended to aid one side and that cannot be an Amicus Curiae, for that reason alone, we pray that this application be dismissed.� Curiously, all the feuding parties, both the petitioners and the respondents over whelmingly agreed with Philip Addison's views. Counsel for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Tsatsu Tsikata, described the gate-crashing lawyer as an "Inter-meddler" who should not be allowed in the proceedings.