An Accra Human Rights Court yesterday struck out four of five exhibits to be relied on by Paul Afoko, the suspended chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), in the suit challenging his suspension as the party’s chairman.
The court, presided over by Justice Anthony Yeboah, upheld an objection raised by Godfred Yeboah Dame, counsel for the NPP.
The case was adjourned on Tuesday to yesterday to enable the parties file and serve their respective pre-trial checklists.
When the matter was due for hearing, both sides had complied with the order of the trial judge.
However, Mr. Dame sprang to his feet to object to four of Mr. Afoko’s five exhibits.
The first exhibit was a document of Osafo-Buabeng, Afoko’s lawyer, described as supplementary objections to the petition filed by the NPP’s council of elders against Mr. Afoko.
Mr. Dame contended that the exhibit was irrelevant to the issues before the court.
Mr. Afoko’s lawyer, subsequently failed to justify the relevance of the exhibit.
The presiding judge consequently upheld Mr Dame’s objection and expunged the exhibit from the record.
The NPP lawyer raised further objections against three other exhibits, being statements filed by Mr. Afoko’s lawyers at the Disciplinary Committee hearing, on the ground of being irrelevant and thus, unhelpful to the resolution of issues for trial.
The court once again after hearing arguments from both lawyers, upheld Mr Dame’s objections and struck out those exhibits of Mr. Afoko.
Justice Yeboah adjourned proceedings to May 9, 2016 for trial.
Mr. Afoko dragged the NPP to court last year after he was suspended indefinitely in October.
The NPP’s Disciplinary Committee had recommended the action following a petition filed by two members of the party.
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