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Hohoe Constituency: Supreme Court sets aside Ho High Court injunction against Amewu
Supreme Court has unanimously granted the Attorney General’s application to set aside the Ho High Court injunction.
According to the Supreme Court, the trial judge of the Ho High Court erred in granting interim order.
Consequently, the reliefs in nature of petition at Ho High Court has been set aside.
A five member Supreme Court panel presided over by Justice Yaw Appaw, heared the case brought by the Attorney General seeking to quash the decision of the Ho High Court that granted an interim injunction against the gazetting of the 2020 Hohoe Parliamentary election.
Other members of the panel included Justice Samuel Marful-Sau, Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, Justice Clemence Hoyenugah and Justice Amadu Tanko.
Background
At the end of the Parliamentary Election in the Hohoe Constituency in the Volta Region which resulted in the due declaration by the Electoral Commission of John Peter Amewu (standing on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party) as the winner, having obtained 26,952 (55.18%) of the popular votes following the December 7 elections.
Subsequently, the results of the Parliamentary Elections nationwide were duly gazetted by the Electoral Commission on Tuesday, 22nd December, 2020.
However, on 23rd December, 2020, the interested parties mentioned above, led by the losing parliamentary candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Hohoe Constituency, invoked the jurisdiction of the High Court, Ho, under Article 33, claiming a violation of their human rights in the conduct of the Parliamentary Election in the Hohoe Constituency.
The Member of Parliament for Nsawam Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh Dompreh, has expressed concern over delays in the release of the District Assemblies Common Fund, warning that the situation is stalling development across the country.
On his facebook page, he described as a matter of urgent national importance, the Minority Chief Whip pointed to what he sees as a growing crisis of unpaid contractors, abandoned projects, and halted infrastructure works in many districts.
He noted that several communities are grappling with half completed schools, unfinished health facilities, abandoned markets, deteriorating roads, and stalled sanitation projects.
According to him, many contractors who have executed projects for district assemblies have not been paid, forcing some construction firms to demobilise from sites while workers lose their jobs.
He stressed that the District Assemblies Common Fund is not a discretionary allocation but a constitutional requirement under Article 252 of the 1992 Constitution, intended to support development at the local level.
In his view, years of delayed releases and accumulated arrears have weakened district development financing and disrupted projects meant to improve living conditions in communities.
He further argued that some payments made in recent years were largely the settlement of old debts rather than funding for new or ongoing projects, a situation he believes has affected contractor confidence and local economic activity.
He described the issue as more than a budgetary challenge, characterising it as a development emergency and a governance concern.
He therefore urged the appropriate authorities to pay outstanding DACF arrears, settle contractors who have completed their work, and ensure that transfers to districts are automatic and predictable.
He maintained that decentralisation can only succeed when district assemblies receive adequate and timely funding to carry out development projects.
He emphasised that stalled projects directly affect ordinary citizens, since they rely on such infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation, sanitation, and economic activities.
He called for renewed attention to grassroots development, insisting that national progress should not be concentrated only in major cities but extended to all communities.
By: Jacob Aggrey
Richard Appiah, the footballer who killed two children and stored part of their bodies in a fridge at Abesim in the Bono Region in 2021 has been handed a lifetime sentence.
This was after a five member panel of judges at the Accra High Court returned a verdict of guilty against the convict.
Appiah, 32, also a draughtsman would spend the rest of his life in prison after he was convicted of murder.
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BY MALIK SULLEMANA
