Bawku MP Gets Reprieve

Sumaila Bielbiel and defense lawyer Yoni Kulendi hugging at court yesterday.

The Supreme Court has granted Adamu Daramani Sakande, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central, extension of time to seek a review of its order that he should file his statement of case.

The court presided over by Justice S. Alan Brobbey, in a matter in which a cattle breeder is seeking to invoke the original jurisdiction of the court to bar the continuous stay of the MP in parliament, in a six to three majority decision, decided to grant his application for extension of time.

Justice Brobbey, who read the verdict, gave the MP one week to file application for review and direct service on Bielbiel and the principal state attorney in the case, Sylvester Williams.

The judge also ordered Bielbiel and the state attorney in the case 'to file their response within a week to aid an expeditious hearing' of the matter, adding that the judgment on their decision to order the MP to file his statement of case would be made available to all the parties.

Earlier, Mr. Williams, in responding to the motion for extension of time by the MP, said it concerned the eligibility of an MP and was therefore time bound, noting that the application for extension of time was a deliberate attempt to waste the time of the court.

The state attorney prayed the court not to grant the application because the MP had taken too long to apply for leave for review, adding that the Supreme Court Rules on applications for review states that it must be done within a month but the accused person waited for almost eight months to do so.

Yoni Kulendi, counsel for the MP, in a brief response to the issue of time, stated that they never did anything to delay the trial but had always been expeditious in filing any application required of them and rather laid the blame on the doorsteps of the state attorney who he said never responded to their applications until ordered by the court to do so.

He told the judges that if he delayed in applying for extension of time for review, it was because he 'did so in fear and trepidation' because the judges did not give a judgment on the issue but only said it would be embodied in their final judgement.

Mr. Kulendi noted that because the judgment was not ready, he could not guess their reasons for ordering the MP to file his statement of case, adding the judgment would have given him the confidence to apply for extension of time because he would base his argument on the judgment.

Counsel for the MP therefore prayed the court to extend the same level of flexibility it offered the state to his client in the interest of justice and it upheld his submission and granted him the application.

Sumaila Bielbiel, a cattle breeder, on Tuesday apologized to nine Supreme Court Justices for casting aspersions and insinuations at them for what he described as deliberate attempts to delay the case.

The apology was made following reports by Yoni Kulendi that the affidavit in opposition to an application for extension of time to seek a review of the court's decision to order the MP to file his statement of case, filed by Bielbiel, contained some scandalous claims.

Mr. Bielbiel stated that every time they came to court, the MP always managed, with the help of the judges, to have the case adjourned for reasons best known to themselves, saying, 'The matter had taken too long.'

Mr. Kulendi told the court presided over by Justice S.A. Brobbey that the application filed by Mr. Bielbiel contained scandalous allegations, saying that 'all kinds of aspersions had been cast at the bench and us as counsel'.

After Justice Jones Dotse took Bielbiel through the series of adjournments, none of which happened at the instance of the Bawku MP, Bielbiel was forced to eat a humble pie and told the court that 'My Lords I am sorry for whatever I did'.

Mr. Kulendi, in moving the motion for extension of time to seek a review of the judges' decision to order the MP to file his statement of case, told the court that the according to the law on election petition, the Court of Appeal is the final authority on issues related to elections.

He said Bielbiel took the matter to the Supreme Court because he said he was left with no choice after he lost two cases at the Court of Appeal, in which the MP challenged his capacity to sue him.

According to counsel for the MP, they still believed Mr. Bielbiel could not cease the original jurisdiction just because he was stranded at the court of Appeal.

The Supreme Court justices were of the opinion that Mr. Williams could file his affidavit in opposition to the application filed by the MP if he so wished.

Mr. Bielbiel has been without counsel following the refusal of the judges to allow him to appear before them till the final determination of an investigation of a statement by his counsel Mr. Raymond Atuguba, that judges are corrupt.

The court, by a six to three majority decision in October, ruled that Daramani Sakande should file his response and statement of case in an application filed by his accuser.

The presiding judge, Justice S. A. Brobbey, who read the verdict of the justices, did not give immediate reasons but said their decision would be embodied in the final judgment of the application filed by Mr. Bielbiel.

Other members of the panel were Justices Julius Ansah, R.O. Owusu, Jones Dotse, Anin Yeboah, Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, B.T. Aryeetey, A. Gbadegbe and Akoto-Bamfo.

By Fidelia Achama