The Supreme Court in 4-1 majority decision has placed an interim (temporal) order on the High Court in Koforidua from sentencing the Member of Parliament for the Akwatia Constituency, Ernest Yaw Kumi in a contempt case pending the final determination of a motion seeking to quash the ruling.
The panel of five with the presiding judge, Justice Gabriel Pwamang, dissented, the apex Court said while the four other members of the panel approved the stay.
What this means is that, even though the Court has stopped the High Court hands, the order of the conviction and the bench warrant is still in force.
The four judge who granted the interim- order after Counsel for the applicant made his prayer were – Justice Prof. Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, Justice Ernest Gaewu, Justice Anthony Kwofie and Justice Adjei Frimpong.
The Court held that granting the interim order against his sentence may seem like a premature decision, but they believe that if the MP is sentenced before the Supreme Court makes a final ruling, it would result in irreparable harm.
Prevention
Earlier, lawyers for the embattled MP for the Akwatia Constituency, Ernest Yaw Kumi, who was convicted of contempt by the Koforidua High Court, were prevented from moving a motion seeking to set aside an injunction restraining him from holding himself as an MP.
On Wednesday, February 26, when the case was called and Counsel Gary Nimako Marfo attempted to move the motion, he was stopped by Justice Gabriel Pwamang, who was presiding over the panel.
The panel questioned whether Kumi had purged himself of contempt before seeking relief from the Supreme Court.
“We are all superior courts, and we are aware that the High Court in Koforidua made orders in the nature of contempt. If you are in contempt, you would purge yourself. You don’t avoid answering it and then you’re given a hearing,” Justice Pwamang, the presiding judge said.
But, Counsel for Kumi in a quick response said the High Court had disregarded processes filed by his client and that, the motion before the Supreme Court was submitted before the High Court’s contempt ruling.
It is the case of counsel again that, he was not aware of the contempt order from the High Court.
However, that position was disputed by counsel for the first interested party, Bernard Bediako Baidoo, who argued the applicant and his lawyers are aware and had already filed another motion at the Supreme Court seeking to set aside the contempt judgment.
Justice Pwamang maintained that, “we (The Supreme Court) cannot give him audience when he had not submitted himself to the rule of law.”
The Applicant- Ernest Yaw Kumi was physically absent from the Supreme Court proceedings and but was represented by Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin (who announced himself as a colleague).
The panel after a short break, had ordered the parties to file their written submissions seven days from today and adjourned the case to March 12 to determine whether or not to hear the MP when he had not subjected himself to the rule of law.
Background
In a motion on notice for an order for certiorari and prohibition, the MP through his counsel contended that the High Court judge committed a jurisdictional error of law on the face of the record when he assumed jurisdiction in Parliamentary Election Petition at Akwatia Constituency at the time when the Electoral Commission had not published the Gazette Notification.
The MP argued that the High Court Judge breached the rules of natural justice when he proceeded to hear and determine the contempt application despite the pendency of his (the MP) motion to set aside the said contempt application for want of jurisdiction
According to him, the High Court Judge was also biased and highly prejudiced against him when he, among others, refused to grant his counsel audience on the basis that counsel had not filed “Appearance” in the contempt application.
The embattled MP sought a “declaration that the Petition filed by Henry Boakye-Yiadom, the first Interested Party (IP) on December 31, 2024 in the absence of the Gazette Notification of the Parliamentary Election Result to which the election relates was incompetent as same did not properly invoke the jurisdiction of the High Court and that any order founded on the same is void and of no effect.”
He is also seeking a “declaration that the Contempt Proceedings and Ruling dated 19th February 2025, found on premature election petition filed on 31st December 2024 is void and of no effect”.
The MP for Akwatia also prayed for an order of certiorari from the Supreme Court quashing the Koforidua High Court ruling dated February 19, 2025, the petition filed on December 31, 2024 and Interim Injunction order on January 2, 2025, and ruling on January 6, 2025, made pursuant to the said premature Election Petition, filed December 31, 2024
