Sammy Crabbe to appeal court's ruling
The suspended First Vice Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Sammy Crabbe has decided to appeal the High Court’s ruling which dismissed his suit challenging his suspension from the party.
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The Human Rights Division of the Accra High Court Thursday shot down Mr Crabbe’s suit on the basis that there had not been any violation on the part of the Disciplinary Committee (DC) of the party to warrant a nullification of its recommendation of the plaintiff’s suspension.
The Court further noted that per the party’s constitution, the DC had the jurisdiction to hear all disciplinary matters and so Mr Crabbe did himself a disservice by not appearing before the committee when he was invited.
But speaking on Citi FM Thursday evening, Mr Crabbe noted that he would appeal the court’s decision.
He said, “Basically I disagree with the Judge so I shall appeal on the grounds that, I pointed to the fact that as an elected officer if anybody had any petition against me, Article 43 (D) states very clearly that the person has to go to the national council and not the national disciplinary committee. Nobody is above discipline in the party but processes have to be followed. And I don’t think he ruled on that. There are other things I disagree with him so my lawyers will look at that and we will go on.”
Mr Crabbe also noted that he would go back to the court to seek further clarification on the court’s ruling that the party’s DC had jurisdiction over an elected officer.
“Elected officers in the party enjoy a certain degree of security of their tenure. It’s very important to their motivation and I believe that is under threat so that’s what I am going for. Others are saying that I went to seek reinstatement as a suspended officer; which is not so because I don’t even recognise that so-called suspension because they don’t even have jurisdiction to do that,” he said.
Mr. Crabbe said it was a misconception for people to think that his court action is merely to distract the party’s campaign with barely six months to the election in November.
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“I never said I was above the law. I only said if you have something against me don’t take it to the disciplinary committee. There are reports I turned down several invitations from the committee but it was just once that they wrote to me and I wrote back to them that I am sorry and cannot appear before them because per the constitution they did not have that power. The judge did not handle those two things; I find it strange and I want to find out why. So I have the right to appeal and I shall go on until I get my justice.”
“It sounds like somebody making a point that when we (NPP) took President Mahama to court our intention was to disrupt Ghana; that’s not the issue. When you go to court, it’s not because you are notorious. We don’t have to paint people who subject themselves to court processes as devilish. We go to court to get certain things to be unraveled. My intention is not to scatter the party’s efforts but to strengthen our efforts. Otherwise if I can be elected and people can get rid of me not using due process, then I will not put myself up for election. And excuse me to say, if people of substance do not put themselves up for election, naysayers and sycophants will do so and it’s going to weaken the NPP.”