Court Throws Out Mahama Ayariga

Mahama Ayariga

The Supreme Court has thrown out a suit filed by opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga, challenging government over the implementation of pro-poor policies.

This follows the decision of the MP to ‘abandon’ the suit filed at the apex court in March 2018.

Sylvester Williams, a chief state attorney, yesterday told the court that he tried several times to reach the NDC MP so that they could agree on the memorandum of issues which the court will determine but “he was not forthcoming”.

He indicated that he wrote to Mr. Ayariga as far back as October last year but he did not respond.

A seven-member panel, presided over by the Chief Justice, Justice Sophia Akuffo and assisted by Justices Sophia Adinyira, Jones Dotse, Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, Sule Gbadegbe, Gabriel Pwamang and Agnes Dordzie, struck out the case for want of prosecution.

Suit

Opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga, in March last year,  sued the government over the implementation of programmes such as ‘Planting for Food and Jobs,’ Free Senior High School (SHS), Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP), among other pro-poor policies designed to make life comfortable for the marginalized in society.

According to a writ filed at the Supreme Court, the implementation of these and other intervention programmes ought to be restrained by the court.

Apart from new policies and programmes envisaged by the Akufo-Addo government to improve the living conditions of Ghanaians, the NDC MP also prayed the apex court to restrain the government from going ahead to implement existing policies like the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC).

He averred in the writ that the government, in implementing the policies, did not lay the operational modalities for some of the programmes before Parliament.

Mr. Ayariga is, therefore, requesting the court to order the president or the relevant minister to lay the framework and roadmaps of the implementation of the policies before Parliament before they are carried through.

Among other reliefs sought by the NDC MP was “an order of mandamus compelling the president or his assigned ministers to bring to Parliament appropriate legislation establishing the institutions or agencies to implement the said initiatives, and to have proper regulations presented to Parliament for enactment to govern the exercise of discretionary powers necessarily implicated in the implementation of  the said initiatives, once the Appropriations (No. 2) Act, 2017 (Act 951) was passed by Parliament authorizing the appropriation of the funds; an interim order of injunction restraining the president or his agents from implementing the initiatives until such time as the appropriate institutions for implementation are enacted by parliament and the appropriate regulations to govern the implementation of the said initiatives are also approved by parliament.”

He was also seeking any other order or orders the court may deem fit to give effect to the declaration.

By Gibril Abdul Razak

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