Abdul Malik Kweku Baako has described media reports that suggest Kennedy Agyapong, the Assin Central MP, has won an appeal against him as a classic case of “premature ejaculation”.
According to him, the report by Pinax TV, an online TV station that streams on YouTube, is “uninformed, totally illiterate, uneducated understanding of what happened in court”.
He explained that the lawyers for the Assin Central MP after the ruling of the High Court were seeking for a “stay of execution” over the defamation case but it was thrown out.
“The High Court dismissed it on the basis that they, [the] lawyers for Kennedy Agyapong, [had] not given any convincing reason to prove that the judgement was not sustainable based on law or facts.
“When they asked for the stay of execution, they were asked that they are filing an appeal so when the verdict is executed, what will be the value of the appeal, but [they] insisted that they have not given any solid reason that merit the stay of execution,” Kweku Baako said on Peace FM’s Kokrookoo morning show on Wednesday.
He added that the high court suggested to lawyers of Kennedy Agyapong that they can proceed to the Court of Appeal to dismiss the verdict. So, they proceeded to the Court of Appeal [but] submitted the application for stay of execution pending appeal.
When the case was called on Monday, October 26, Baako’s lawyers opposed the stay of execution application on the basis that it has no merit.
Baako told Nana Yaw Kesse: “The Court of Appeal examined all the factors and ruled that [the] stay of execution will apply to the apology and retraction…but the GHC100,000 [judgement of the high court], pay 50 per cent now even before the appeal begins and pay the GHC30,000 [legal cost] making GHC80,000, so if he [Kennedy Agyapong] wins the appeal, the GHC80,000 will be refunded to him…”
He added that the appeal has not been filed in court to determine whether or not there is some merit in the case.
“What they brought to court was an application [for] stay of execution pending appeal…nothing happened in the courtroom indicating how the appeal will go because the appeal was not before the court,” Kweku Baako insisted.
He added that he was a very “patient and resilient” individual who has the time to wait for as long as the case is dragged in court.
“Look, we spent 20 months in the high court for this verdict, Kweku Baako can wait for another 20 months even though the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court matters of this nature [are] faster because [they are] not real litigation per se.
“You have to prove that the judgement you are contesting is not based on law, facts and evidence and [that] something extraordinary is wrong with that verdict…and I’m very patient, comfortable and confident,” Kweku Baako stressed.
Source: www.ghanaweb.com