#FixTheCountry campaigner Oliver Barker-Vormawor has been awarded GHc10,000 in costs by the Supreme Court as it dismissed a case he was representing.
Clearly unhappy with the standards of the proceedings, as well as the quality of Mr Baker-Vormavor's legal representation in court on Tuesday, the court said the application was "nonsensical", "vexatious" and the court found "no merit" in it.
The vocal activist was a lawyer for a group calling itself the Democratic Accountability Lab in the case before the court.
The group sought to bind the Commissioner General, the Ghana Revenue Authority and the Ghana Revenue Authority itself in contempt of the implementation of the controversial e-toll from 1 May 2022, while an application for an injunction was pending in relation to the implementation. .
The group told the court that the action had the effect of exposing the court to ridicule.
Before Oliver Barker-Vormawor came forward, he was bombarded with questions ranging from standard practice to procedure to substantive law, including precedent (decided cases).
The president of the seven-judge court, Nene Amegatcher, asked him about the correctness of the title of the case before the court.
He also questioned why the allegation is not leveled against any specific official of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), noting that organizations cannot be cited for contempt.
Court ladies and gentlemen again demanded from him a legal basis on the basis of which he tried to appear before them and hang a public official and an institution "in prison".
His Lordship Emmanuel Yoni Kulendi calmly thundered: “We are a court, not an NGO. What we want is your legal authority, not your opinion and speeches”.
For Her Ladyship, Prof. Mensah-Bonsu, Mr Barker-Vomarvor came "as an official spectator".
“You can't be the outsider who cries louder than the bereaved. So we want to hear you about the laws and the authorities,” hammered Her Ladyship.
The outspoken activist reeled under the weight and heat of the blast and sought refuge under the Supreme Court's 1976 decision in Okine v. Mawu & Another.
According to lawyer Barker-Vormawor, this case is the basis that even a stranger can file a contempt petition.
Just as Lady Lovelace Johnson asserted the facts of this authority and the court's precise conduct, Lord Professor Ashie Kotei questioned why a 1976 Supreme Court decision was used to argue a case in 2022 at the Supreme Court.
Notwithstanding the Democratic Accountability Lab attorney's submission, the Court stated that it "does not think we should ask counsel to respond to the second respondent, the applicant, in our view, has no locus standi in this matter."
"The application itself," said the Court, "is defective and inconsistent with the practice of introducing notices of origin of motions in this Court."
Here is the full court line-up, Nene Amegatcher as President, Professor Ashie Kotey, Mariama Owusu, Lovelace Johnson, Gertrude Torkonoo, Professor Henrietta Mensah Bonsu and Emmanuel Yoni Kulendi.
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