Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Nii Ayikoi Otoo thinks that members of Parliament from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) side lack tactics and strategy, and that they talk too much.
He said by talking too much, the NDC side end up revealing their plans and that enables their opponents from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) side to act and prepare appropriately to thwart their moves.
Mr Ayikoi Otoo who was commenting on the Supreme Court’s halting of the Speaker’s ruling that declared four seats in Parliament vacant said, even before the consequential issues from the Speaker’s ruling were implemented, the NDC side started talking publicly, claiming they were going to repeal certain laws and all other things that they intended doing.
They were in the media talking about all those issues instead of keeping quiet and doing their things in the Chamber.
Even before they brought up the issue of the four members of Parliament to the floor for deliberation, they had started talking outside of Parliament on political platforms that they were going to remove those four MPs from Parliament.
That, he said, enabled the NPP side to put their House in order and initiated moves to thwart it, including going to court timeously.
He said the NDC shot themselves in the foot by talking too much and therefore ended up frightening the Majority for them to wake up to act.
Mr Ayikoi Otoo was speaking in a radio interview with Accra based Citi FM, monitored by Graphic Online.
Commenting on a public debate as to why this particularly case had gained the attention of the Supreme Court timeously when other cases also before the Supreme Court were delaying, Mr Ayikoi Otoo said that argument was “flawed” in the sense that “this is an ex parte application.”
He said an ex parte application is looked at from the urgency of the situation.
“I think I will take this opportunity to advise the NDC, I think they shot themselves in the foot by talking too much. You talk about strategies and tactics and I think it is lost on them [NDC] completely, and they were doing things, which really frightened the Majority and pushed them into trying to protect whatever. We [NDC] are going to amend laws, change this… just keep quiet and do your thing, at the end of the day, when you get whatever you want to get fine.”
“Anything you want to do think about your strategy and tactics and stop making too much noise. The noise [from the NDC] was such that when you frighten somebody [NPP side], the basic instinct of a man is to protect his life and to survive. All the things they [NDC] did, compelled the Majority to take this decision they have taken.”
“When you file a motion on notice, then both sides must be served. The thing the Judiciary doesn’t want is not giving a hearing before condemning anybody.
He said an ex parte application is used in extreme cases and based on what the NDC was doing, overreacting and doing things, that pushed the Majority to go the extreme of going to take an ex parte application.
He said this ex parte application cannot be compared to the LGBT case which was filed on notice.
Mr Ayikoi Otoo said the NDC side had given notice that on Tuesday, they were going to reconstitute all committees, and go ahead to appoint a new Deputy Speaker of Parliament and even proceed to file papers to amend the communication tax, “so they told us their intentions when they take over on Tuesday, and these are the matters that required something to be done about them, if you don’t do anything about them, then it means they are going to run riot and do whatever they want within the period and you know that within this time, nobody can hold a by-election, so the danger is that, something had got to be done or things will go haywire.”
“Now remember, for example when you asked the NPP presidential candidate [Bawumia] to amend the E-levy, what you were in effect was that, the Appropriation Law based on these levies must also go away and that is why he [Bawumia] said wait for me to take over power then will do the amendment because we are depending on these taxes to fund certain projects.
“So when the NDC gave notice ahead that next week, immediately they become Majority this is what they are going to do, you don’t see the chaos and the confusion…,”
Mr Ayikoi Otoo said it was based on all those information or “ammunition” that the NPP side went to the Supreme Court ex parte and management to argue their case out to convince the court to suspend the ruling of the Speaker.
Graphic