Supreme Court Plays "We'll Marry Judges" Tape...Justice Baffoe Bonnie Recuses Himself

There was a loud silence and a drop of a pin could be heard when the Supreme Court played the contents of a controversial audio which has become the subject of a contempt case against a staff of an Accra based radio station Montie FM and two panelists. Prior to the airing of the tape, lawyers for the contemnors pleaded with the court not to playback the contemptuous audios.  Peace FM's Reporter Agya Kwabena, who witnessed the airing of the tape, recounted that when the presiding Judge Sophia Akuffo handed over the tape to the registrar for it to be played, Counsel for the contemnors George Loh, Nana Ato Dadzie and Martin Ampofo Agyei prayed the court not to do so. They pleaded that listening to the audio tape may inflame passions which may affect the court hearing and further cited that they are ashamed of the content of the tape, but the panel of judges sitting on the case refused to heed to their pleas. He further narrated that one of the panel members, Justice Paul Baffoe Bonnie recused himself to avoid any conflict of interest situation due to his family relations with one of the managers of the station,Mr Baffoe Bonnie. The development brings to three, the number of judges to have recused themselves from the case so far. Last week, the Chief Justice Georgina Wood and Justice Nasiru Sulemana Gbadegbe stayed out of the trial. Warning Judges Alistair Nelson and Godwin Ako Gunn, who were panelists on ‘Pampaso’, a political programme on Montie FM in Accra on June 29, warned judges of Ghana’s highest court to be wary of their conduct in the case involving the Electoral Commission and Mr Abu Ramadan if they did not want to suffer the fate of the three members of the bench who were shot to death and burnt on June 30, 1982 in the era of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC). The Supreme Court had to adjourn the case to July 18 after the contemnors argued that they were not served with the writ until the morning of the hearing day, a position which was corroborated by the court registrar. More soon....

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana