Court dismisses injunction application against Asokwa PM election

The Kumasi High Court has dismissed an injunction application filed by the assembly member for Asokwa New Town, Mr Oscar Riches, urging the court to halt the Electoral Commission (EC) and the Asokwa Municipal Assembly from conducting an election to elect a new Presiding Member for the assembly.

Mr Riches wanted the court to halt the election until the final determination of his suit challenging his disqualification from the election.

However, in a ruling last Wednesday, the court, presided over by Justice Frederick Tetteh, held that Mr Riches breached statutory rules by not serving the Asokwa Municipal Assembly a one-month notice before filing the legal action.

Justice Tetteh held that per Section 210 of the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936), before any metropolitan, municipal and district assembly (MMDA) was sued, the plaintiff must serve the assembly with a one-month notice about his intention to commence the legal action.

Section 210 of Act 936 stipulates that “a suit shall not be commenced against a district assembly until at least one month after a written notice of intention to commence the suit has been served on the district assembly by the intending plaintiff or an agent of the plaintiff.”

The court gave the ruling after it upheld a preliminary legal objection filed by the EC and the Attorney-General.

The court also awarded cost of GH¢10, 000, against Mr Riches.

Ruling

Justice Tetteh held that even though the legal team of Mr Riches argued that the applicant wrote a letter to notify the assembly, the said letter was not in a proper format for notifying the assembly of his intention to sue them and as such could not be relied on as evidence.

Furthermore, Justice Tetteh upheld the argument of the counsel for EC, Mr Emmanuel Addai, that election grievances should be through petitions and not writs of summons.

The court advised that if the applicant was still interested in stopping the assembly from going ahead with the presiding member election, he could start the process afresh.

Background

On February 13, this year, Mr Riches also known as ‘Ghana Beyeyie’ filed a motion at the Kumasi High Court seeking to stop the EC and the Asokwa Municipal Assembly from conduction election to elect a Presiding Member after he and one Bismarck Osei Tutu were disqualified from contesting again.

The two had on two occasions failed to obtain the required number of votes to be declared winners and PM.