Politics of Friday, 17 March 2023

Source: starrfm.com.gh

Injuncted NDC Regional Youth Organizer invokes jurisdiction of Supreme Court

Injuncted Eastern Regional Youth Organizer of the NDC, Richard Etornam Nyarko Injuncted Eastern Regional Youth Organizer of the NDC, Richard Etornam Nyarko

Injuncted Eastern Regional Youth Organizer of the NDC Richard Etornam Nyarko alias “Commander Blibo” has filed a Judicial Review Application at the Supreme Court invoking the supervisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to quash the ruling of the Koforidua High Court which granted an injunction order against him.

The immediate past Eastern Regional Youth Organizer of the NDC, Emmanuel Okai Minta is challenging in court the regional youth organizer election held on November 11, 2022, at Nsawam which saw his then deputy regional youth organizer, Richard Etornam Nyarko defeat him with 55 votes as against 52 votes he obtained.

According to the plaintiff, the Constituency youth organizers, their deputies and other youth executives making a total of six(6) delegates from Afram Plains South and Atewa West were not eligible to take part in the election because the Functional Executives committee of the party had nullified the elections in the said constituencies in a press release.

That, they ought not to have taken part in the election.

The plaintiff prayed the Koforidua High court to place a perpetual injunction restraining Richard Etornam Nyarko from holding himself as Regional Youth Organizer or any other executive within the Regional executive committee until a fresh election is conducted.

A declaration that Atiwa West and Afram Plains South illegally voted at the youth wing elections held on November 11, 2022, and an order to annul the Eastern Regional Youth wing election by the aforesaid infractions.

In December 2022, the Koforidua High Court presided by His Lordship Nana Yaw Gyamfi Frimpong granted the injunction application against Richard Etornam Nyarko and went on to make a pronouncement that nullified the Eastern Regional Youth Organizer election even though the substantive case is yet to be determined.

The ruling of the court Thursday, December 8, 2022, came less than 48 hours before the national youth organizer conference of the NDC held in Cape Coast in the Central Region on Saturday, December 10, 2022.

The Judicial Review Application filed at the Supreme Court by Richard Etornam Nyarko is intended to quash the ruling of the High Court in Koforidua claiming the judge erred when it proceeded to grant almost all the reliefs endorsed on the writ of summons when he was granting the injunction application which is something that is considered to be prejudicial because until the court case has been fully heard by the court, the High Court had no jurisdiction to decide the matter and deliver the ruling against him in the manner that the court did.

Richard Etornam Nyarko in his Affidavit in Support of the Application invoking the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court says that the Koforidua High court did not have the jurisdiction to do what it did for which reason the Supreme Court should bring up the order and quash it.

He is also asking the Supreme Court to transfer the case to a different judge because having determined the matter, the High Court in Koforidua cannot be made to sit on the case again.

Richard Etornam Nyarko is therefore seeking an Order of Certiorari and Prohibition from the Supreme Court against the High Court in Koforidua to quash the Ruling and Order of the High Court and to Prohibit the High Court Judge from sitting on the case.

His Legal team headed by Lawyer Isaac Minta Larbi of Okore Chambers, in Koforidua- Adweso, and also Chairman of the NDC Legal Team, Eastern Region is confident in the competence of his client’s application.