The Supreme Court, in a 4-1 majority decision, has halted the Koforidua High Court from sentencing Akwatia MP Ernest Yaw Kumi in a contempt case until a final ruling is made on a motion to overturn the decision.
Justice Gabriel Pwamang dissented, while the remaining four justices on the panel supported the stay.
The Member of Parliament for Akwatia, Ernest Yaw Kumi filed a certiorari and prohibition application at the Supreme Court, seeking to overturn a February 19 contempt of court conviction against him.
Counsel for the MP, Gary Nimako Marfo, argues in the application that Justice Emmanuel Senyo Amadehe of the Koforidua High Court committed “a jurisdictional error of law apparent on the face of the record when he assumed jurisdiction in [the] Parliamentary Election Petition at Akwatia Constituency at the time when the Electoral Commission had not published the Gazette Notification of the results to which the Election relates in the Gazette.”
Justice Senyo Amadehe had convicted Ernest Yaw Kumi for contempt of court and issued a bench warrant for his arrest, citing his defiance of an interim injunction that barred him from being sworn in as a legislator.
