Deputy Director of Legal Affairs for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Baba Jamal has chastised the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) lawyers describing the various applications filed by the lawyers of the 2020 election Petitioner as a waste of time.
According to the former Member of Parliament for Akwatia Constituency, the various applications that have been filed to make changes in the petition before the Supreme Court is constitutional.
Speaking on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, Baba Jamal said that the lawyers of former President John Mahama are talking law as the constitution does not frown on amending a filed application before the actual trial begins.
"We are talking about the law. It is in our constitution in Ghana that one can amend a filed application so that the actual case can come out clearly before the trial begins . . . " he argued.
He maintained that it is the normal legal practice for lawyers worth their sort to file an application for review and application for a stay without seeing it as a means to delay the actual trial as some lawyers of the NPP are articulating in public.
“We have already filed for stay application and we have also filed an application for review and we are arguing for the extra ground to be added to the substantive case. This is not something new in law; every lawyer who is worth the sort knows that this is a normal legal practice. We have not violated any law; in fact, what we are doing is in accordance with the law because when we clear all these we have filed, the case will be simple and not last long,” he explained.
“You have the right to change your pleadings anytime as you go forward in the trial; even within the trial if there is a need to change any of the pleads in the case, the law allows you do so,” he added.
Baba Jamal stressed that, “If it becomes necessary to make changes in the petition as the trial is in session, the law allows you to do that. We want everybody to be satisfied with the outcome of the Supreme Court ruling and that is why we are making some changes in the petition depending on the applications filed by the EC and Nana Akufo-Addo’s lawyers”.
Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected]
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