A-G Blasted Over PPP�s FCUBE Case

Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday, July 8th, 2014 took a swipe at the office of the Attorney-General (A-G) for what it described as unnecessary delay in the case involving the Progressive People�s Party (PPP), the plaintiff and the Attorney-General (A-G,) the defendant, on the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE). This happened at the instance of the hearing of the case, which was eventually adjourned sine die. Speaking to Today after the adjournment, National Secretary of PPP, Kofi Siaw-Asamoah, who led the PPP�s team to the Supreme Court, bemoaned the posture of the AG and the turn of events at the court. �We were (PPP�s team) surprised, including the judges themselves, how the AG behaved in court,� PPP�s national secretary revealed. The AG�s attitude, he noted, warranted the chastisement from the seven-member judges who sat on the case. The PPP�s chief scribe explained that the AG had gone to court to move a motion of application it filed on 3rd July, 2014 for extension of time. That, according to the AG, was to help it seek for further and better particulars from the ministry of education to make some inputs into the case. In the estimation of Mr. Asamoah-Siaw, the AG who was led by the principal State Attorney, Afua Abban, was at the court to �waste the time of the judges and the plaintiff.� Though the AG�s motion to file its statement of case was granted and it was given seven days from the day it was granted, the PPP�s national secretary said it did not happen without being reprimanded by the judges. For instance, Justice Akoto Bamfo, Mr. Asamoah-Siaw said, could not fathom why the AG failed to address some portions of the PPP�s writ, which were purely legal and did not require any input from the ministry of education. �You (referring to AG) could have dealt with the legal aspects of the writ and probably come back and deal with the one�s that require some inputs from the education ministry,� Justice Akoto Bamfo was reported to have said. �In the first place, you delayed unnecessarily in response to the PPP�s writ and now you still want extension of time, time for what?� he was purported to have quizzed. For his part, Justice Anin Yeboah, according to the leader of the PPP�s team, registered his resentment about the attitude of the AG saying �your action(s) is a sign of disrespect to your client (government).� �How do you expect your client to have confidence in you when you approach your work with this lackadaisical posture?� Justice Anin Yeboah was reported to have retorted. When asked about extension of time, the lead counsel of the PPP�s legal team, Somuah Asamoah, according to Mr. Asamoah-Siaw, though he was not enthused that he accepted it. It would be recalled that PPP on March 31, 2014 filed a writ at the Supreme Court seeking to, among other things, have a further interpretation of the FCUBE and as well compel government to implement the compulsory aspect of the policy as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution. The application was filed following President John Dramani Mahama�s promise in his State of the Nation address in Parliament on February 25th this year that his ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) would commence the implementation of free Senior High School (SHS) policy next year. This is a promise contrary to what he [President Mahama] said about the same policy prior to 2012 General Elections. The PPP�s reliefs, among other things, seek to have �a declaration that on the true and proper interpretation of Articles 25 (1) (a) and 38 (2) of the 1992 Constitution, Government of Ghana had only twelve years commencing from January 7, 1993 to January 6, 2005 to have delivered to the Ghanaian children of school going age free, compulsory and universal basic education and that the government has failed in discharging the said constitutional duty imposed on her by the people of Ghana.�