A seven Member Supreme Court panel presided over by the Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo has shot down findings of the Sole Commissioner, Justice Yaw Apaw, now a Supreme Court judge himself.
The court declared as unconstitutional, some conclusions the Sole Commissioner reached when he considered the cases involving businessma Alfred Agbesi Woyome vrs. the Attorney General, and Sky Consult vrs. Ghana Post, TV3’s Selorm Amenyah reports.
The Supreme Court says the recommendations of the Sole Judgement debt Commissioner sort to give interpretation to a decision of a court and that amounted to a breach of Article 125 and 127 of the 1992 constitution which does not permit the decision of a court to be derogated upon or varied by any other body in Ghana except the court itself.
A legal practitioner Claude Oppon late last year prayed the Supreme Court to expunge the findings and recommendations on Alfred Agbesi Woyome and Sky Consult as captured in the Sole Commissioner’s final report to the president.
The businessman Alfred Woyome is embroiled in a protracted legal battle with the state following the wrongful award of GH51 million judgement debt to him. The Sky Consult had also won a GH¢1,693,872.11 judgement debt against state-owned Ghana Post.
The Sole Commissioner, Justice Yaw Apau, between 2012 and 2014 investigated the payment of judgment debts and other related matters, which included judgment debts paid to Mr. Woyome and Sky Consult.
Justice Yaw Apau presented his report to then President John Dramani Mahama in 2015 but sections of the report were challenged at the Supreme Court.
Giving its ruling on Thursday, June 22, 2017, the Supreme Court upheld the position of the plaintiff that parts of the Sole Commissioner’s report amount to interference in the judicial process and a violation of the independence of the judiciary.
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