Voltarians Challenge Justice Dotse “PROVE YOU’RE NOT NPP”
Supreme Court judge, Justice Jones Victor Mawulorm Dotse may have succeeded albeit; temporally to extricate his name from allegations making the rounds that he was once a chairman of the New Patriotic Party in the Volta region, but for how long?
Ever since His Lordship, Justice Jones Dotse, in an open court in Accra denied ever been an office holder of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Volta region, the office of The Al-Hajj has been inundated with telephone calls from the region expressing shock and disbelieve.
Sitting as a member of the nine Supreme Court judges hearing the National Democratic Congress' application to be joined in the NPP's petition challenging the election of President John Dramani Mahama on Wednesday, Justice Dotse, whose ruling in the infamous Tagor/Abass MV Benjamin cocaine case was rubbished as a cancerous tumor in the legal anatomy that should be flashed out from the legal system and confined to the waste by a three member Court of Appeal Judges told an open court “I have never contested for any election on the ticket of the NPP, let alone polling station, constituency or regional offices of the NPP, while I was a lawyer.”
He dared anybody with evidence to that effect to bring it forward or forever shut up and vowed to recuse himself from the case if such evidence is brought before the court.
This challenge seems to have opened the Pandora box as many people from Ho, Kadjebi and Justice Dotse's native Kpando in the region voluntarily called in to our office to challenge the assertions by the Judge, with one of them claiming that “if even the honorable judge can say he has never held any post in the NPP, can he also say in all honesty that he is not NPP?
And then, just over the weekend on Joy fm's current affairs program, News file hosted by Samson Lardy Ayenini, an opinion leader from the Volta region and a leading member of the NDC, Chris Ackumey said the open denial by Justice Jones Dotse that he has never been a chairman of the NPP in Volta Region is not enough.
According to him merely denying his alleged chairmanship role and not stating whether or not he had been a member of the NPP is baffling, adding you can be a card bearing member of the NPP and not be its executive.
One of the callers from Ho, who gave his name as Korbla Agble, confidently remarked “I must be frank and candid with you, Justice Jones Dotse is a known NPP man and I know him personally in Kpando as a lawyer in private practice, until he became a judge in Accra… I know how he, together with Mr. Amematekpor actively campaigned for ex-President Kufuor to win the 2000 election”.
“Lawyer Jones; if you like record me, he is a card bearing member of the NPP…his law firm, Mawulorm Chambers, which is located in Ho is where the NPP gurus, Ken Nuworsu, Ernest Gaewu, Amematekpor and co meet to strategize… He registered and voted at Adjiavi polling station in the Kpando Municipality... that was where I also registered; the polling station code is B140701… He should move beyond reproach by saying the truth” he added.
According to him, the Dotse families in Kpando are well known dyed in the wool “mati meho” (UP-NPP tradition) and they call the shots in the NPP in the Volta region because they are among the “financial backers of the party in the region”
Mr. Chris Ackumey on his part on Joy fm said, for Justice Dotse to say that he has never been a chairman of the NPP is not enough, adding, people in the Volta Region, who know him will be the best the true judges.
Anita Ablavi Dunyo, another caller from Kpando dared Justice Dotse to swear before their deadly village deity that, he has never been involved in any activity of the NPP before he was a made a High Court Judge, averring “he together with Stephen Dzanku and Ernest Gaewu were in his law firm before he moved from Ho to Accra”
“We call him Lawyer Jones when he was living at the Mawuli estate behind the Mawuli School before he relocated to Accra. He was also always in the company of Mr. Kamagbla, a top financier of the NPP here in Kpando…why is he trying to be dishonest? This man is a 'die-hard' NPP man, or is there any other Dotse at the Supreme Court” she quizzed.
According to her, she has overwhelming evidence to the effect that, the judge was seen among NPP supporters dancing to 'Boboobor' music when early results in 1996 elections suggested that that former President Kufuor was winning the election.
She opined that “I have evidence to prove that, he was instrumental in mobilizing people here in Volta region for the 1995 'Kumi Preko” demonstration, which was led by the likes of Nana Akufo-Addo, Kwesi Pratt and others…why has he forgotten how he wine and dined with lawyer Ernest Gaewu who contested the Ho West parliamentary seat for the NPP and Kenwood Nuworsu, the regional Chairman of the NPP? My brother Lawyer Gaewu still operates from Dotse's chambers in Ho”
“Go to the Electoral Commission and find out if Lawyer Dotse's name is not part of the founding fathers of the NPP in the Volta region…he was quick to say, he has never held any position in the NPP, he should also come to deny ever associating with the NPP,” she disclosed.
It would be recalled that Justice Jone Dotse, then an Appeals Court Judge, sitting as an additional High Court Judge at the Accra Fast Track High Court in November 2007, sentenced Kwabena Amaning a.k.a Tagor and Alhaji Issah Abass, both businessmen, to 15 years in prison each in the infamous MV Benjamin cocaine trial.
His judgment was subsequently shredded into pieces in 2009 and the accused freed by a three member Court of Appeal Judge, who contended that Justice Dotse's ruling was a nullity as it was based on defective charges that were not known under any criminal jurisprudence.
The three Court of Appeal Judges, Mr. Justice Peasare, Justice Yaw Appau and Mr. justice Addo noted in the ruling that “the conviction and sentence of the appellants on all charges constitutes a cancerous tumor in the legal anatomy that should not be made to eat into other infant lower courts and as such should be flashed out from the system and confined to the waste bin.”