Supreme Court Should Not Be Made An �Avenue For Theatricals And Legal Nonsense�

Lawyer Frank Davis, the Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the Ghana BAR Association, has described the attempt by Lawyer Benoni Tony Amekudze to be joined to the on-going election petition trial in the Supreme Court as an �Amicus Curiae� is a mockery of the highest Court of the land. �I am particularly saddened because these proceedings are viewed, they are beamed all over. People are having access to what is happening in our court so if a lawyer properly so enrolled, he claims or suggested that one way or the other, he was called to the BAR in 1996. So if we have a practicing lawyer, so to speak, of our courts make such a mess of himself in court, it is worrying. It is not something I think that the legal profession should just sit by and allow to happen,� he lamented. The Greater Accra BAR President argued that �for a lawyer to come to the Supreme Court, the highest court of the land and for a practicing lawyer not to know that when you file a motion before any court that motion ought and necessarily be supported with an affidavit. There are only exceptional circumstances when you can file an application without an affidavit� According Lawyer Davis, it is not right for any lawyer to make a �mess of himself� in that manner because as legal practitioners, there are many people who look up to them and they are role models to many children who watch the proceedings. The President of the local BAR Association said this on Citi FMs �Big Issues� on Saturday during a panel discussion on the �Amicus Curiae brief� Tony Amekudze attempted to file in order to be included to the case. Lawyer Benoni Tony Amekudze sought to draw the attention of the court to a violation of the law in the hearing of the presidential election petition. At the hearing of the petition Thursday morning, Benoni Tony Amekudze, who introduced himself as a friend of the court argued he wanted to draw the attention of the court to some relevant provisions of the law that were being violated. He insisted that if given the opportunity, he would demonstrate to the court whether or not a sitting President should be sued or joined in a suit as a respondent and that he wanted to draw the Supreme Court�s attention to the fact that it was breaking the law. Mr. Amekudze�s application was subsequently dismissed on grounds that it was not properly laid before the court after the counsel for both the petitioners and the respondents unanimously prayed the court to dismiss the application since it was not properly laid before the court. However, Lawyer Frank Davies believes that acts such as these would drag the image of the Supreme Court in the mad, by �making it an avenue for theatricals and legal nonsense�.