The former Member of Parliament for the Asikuma Odoben Brakwa Constituency in the Central Region, Mr. Paul Collins Appiah-Ofori, believes it was by divine intervention that the party�s Deputy Communications Director, Sammy Awuku was not gaoled.
To him, it was �God who saved� Sammy Awuku on Wednesday when he appeared before the bench after he was declared �wanted� because, the lightest sentence that could have been slapped on him for contempt of court was a jail term; but the intervention of all the lawyers from both sides helped in mitigating the matter.
��.In cases of contempt, under the laws, it is only a lenient Judge who would not put you behind bars. So I think God saved him as far as the punishment he was given yesterday�.
�Also, the NDC lawyers and the lawyers of the Electoral Commission (EC) added their voices in pleading for him. And I think that appealed to the Judges but either than that, he would have been jailed,� he explained on Adom Fm.
The former law-maker made these comments after the Supreme Court tempered justice with mercy, on 26th June, 2013, by only placing a ban on Sammy Awuku for making contemptuous comments regarding a warning the court issued, to deal with persons who misreport the court proceedings.
Presiding Judge in the ongoing Election Petition, Justice William Atuguba, who delivered the court's decision said, though they have decided not to invoke their powers of contempt, they will restrict his appearance to court; thus barring the NPP communicator from coming to the courtroom to witness proceedings.
This was after he (Awuku) rendered an unconditional apology to the Supreme Court for describing the Bench as �hypocritical and selective� in its reprimand of errant commentators and reportage by both the media and political Analysts.
The former representative of the people of Asikuma Odoben Brakwa, in the august House of Parliament, was full of gratitude to the highest court of the land.
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