President dragged to court

May 17, 2011 (Page 3 Lead)

THE President's decision to appoint a member of the Council of State, Mr J. H. Owusu-Acheampong, as his Campaign Manager for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flag-bearer contest for Election 2012 has been challenged at the Supreme Court.
The Centre for Constitutional Order (CENCORD) has dragged President J.E.A. Mills, Mr Owusu-Acheampong and the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice to court, claiming that the appointment of Mr Owusu-Acheampong and the acceptance of same by him "are acts that are inconsistent with or in contravention of the letter and spirit of the 1992 Constitution and more particularly articles 2 (1) (b); 3 (4) (a); 41 (b) and 89 (1) (2) (c) thereof".
The plaintiff, who is invoking the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, is also praying the court to grant an order prohibiting any sitting President from deploying members of the Council of State for partisan undertakings, as well as an injunction against Mr Owusu-Acheampong from holding himself out as Campaign Manger or Chairman of the President's campaign in the NDC flag-bearer contest as long as he remained a member of the Council of State.
CENCORD has also filed a motion for interim injunction praying the Supreme Court to restrain Mr Owusu-Acheampong from holding himself as the Campaign Manager of President Mills until all issues raised in the substantive case had been determined by the Supreme Court.
In the motion for interim injunction, the plaintiff contended that Mr Owusu-Acheampong had no intention of desisting from "execution of the unlawful act imposed on him by the sitting President", unless expressly restrained by the Supreme Court.
According to the plaintiff, it had brought the action against the defendants in its capacity as a corporate body whose constitutional duty enjoined it, at all times, to uphold, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and the law as of the Republic.
A legal practitioner, Mr Dennis Owusu-Appiah Ofosuapea, swore an affidavit in support and stated that he had the consent of CENCORD to depose to the affidavit.
The statement of the plaintiff's case, filed at 10.25 a.m. yesterday, stated, among other things, that the President had, on May 5, 2011, appointed Mr Owusu-Acheampong, who had been elected into office in 2009 by the people of the Brong Ahafo Region to represent the region on the Council of State, as his Campaign Manager.
According to the plaintiff, Mr Owusu-Acheampong had acted in that capacity and had since been directing the affairs of the campaign team in a bid to ensure that President Mills won the flag-bearer position of the NDC at the congress slated for Sunyani from July 8 to 11, 2011.
The plaintiff argued that members of the Council of State had the constitutional mandate to counsel the President in the performance of his duties.
"Appointment of a member of the Council of State to manage and or chair the President's political ambition to bear the flag of his political party is not one of the numerous duties of the President under the 1992 Constitution and or any known law in the Republic," the statement of case spelt out.
It further submitted that since Mr Owusu-Acheampong represented the Brong Ahafo Region and not any particular political party, becoming the President's chairman in "a manner that puts him in active NDC political affairs defeats his representation and thereby creates a potential disaffection among the people he is supposed to represent, some of whom are of different political persuasions or none at all".
The plaintiff further contended that members of the Council of State could not be partisan under the current constitutional dispensation, as they were to remain politically neutral in order to counsel the President to truly represent the best interest of the nation for the good of all.