The suit filed by UDP, NRP and Momodou K. Sanneh as plaintiffs against the Attorney General and the Independent Electoral Commission has been dealt yet another defeat. A five-member panel of judges yesterday dismissed the suit as being incompetent and that the panel lacked jurisdiction to hear the suit.

Reading the ruling on behalf of the panel, Ghanaian Justice Jones Doste stated that the ruling emanated from the 1st defendant’s/respondent’s objection to the motion filed by the plaintiffs on the grounds that the motion was incompetent and that there is a lack of jurisdiction to hear the motion. He said the plaintiff filed relieves on 17th November 2007 at the Supreme Court contesting the recent Local Government (Amendment) Act 2007 passed by the National Assembly and assented to by the President. He said the suit was heard by the Chief Justice sitting as single Judge.

Justice Doste further added that the defendants filed a preliminary objection by stating the grounds of their objection, adding that on 16th January 2008 the Chief Justice, sitting as a single Judge, upheld the objection by the defendants and dismissed the suit.

He adduced that the plaintiffs subsequently filed a motion for the Supreme Court’s five-member panel to review the Chief Justice’s decision. He stated that section 8(2) of the Supreme Court Act stated that the application for review could only be heard by a panel of no less than seven judges, noting that the application should therefore be a fresh application. He at length read out the ruling dismissing the motion filed by the plaintiff/ applicants, stating that the motion is incompetent and the court lacked jurisdiction to hear it.

The judges also stated that since it is a constitutional matter, it is the duty of the court to give the plaintiffs the opportunity to be heard by the competent and properly constituted court.