I am Sorry – Dr Ayine apologises for contemptuous comment

The former deputy Attorney General Dr Dominic Ayine has publicly retracted and apologised for his slanderous comment against the Supreme court.

“I am here this evening in respect of the remarks that I made to you on February 16, 2021, after court proceedings. Those remarks were widely publicised by the media. I have looked at what I said that day and have come to the conclusion that I went overboard.

“I crossed the line with respect to the remarks that I made in terms of attributing inappropriately to the Supreme of the Republic of Ghana and I just wanted to let you know that this morning, I delivered a letter to his Lordship, the Chief Justice offering an unqualified apology to the court.

“I reflected on that day and realised I had crossed the line, I wish to unreservedly apologise to the court as well as the justices who sat on that day. There was no intention on my part to impugn with integrity, I was just expressing a sentiment with respect to the ruling on that day and I am want to render an unqualified apology.

In a post-trial media interview last week, Ayine said the Supreme Court’s basis for dismissing Mahama’s motion to reopen his case in the ongoing election petition hearing smacks of a predetermined agenda to rule against the petitioner.

He said: “It is not true that there is only one issue that needs to be determined in this matter. I am surprised that the Supreme Court itself having set down five key issues to be determined is now reducing the issue to one, which is whether the extent to which the evidence that we have led shows that no one got more than 50% of the votes in accordance with Article 63 of the Constitution.”

“We have made it abundantly clear in the petition that there were a number of infractions, we are contesting even the constitutionality of the declaration that was made. We are saying that she violated Article 23 because she is an administrative body, we have also said the exercise of discretion was contrary to Article 296 of the Constitution,” he said.

He added: “These are all germane issues under the constitution and laws of Ghana. And to reduce the petition into a single issue petition is rather unfortunate and smacks of a predetermined agenda to rule against the petitioner in this matter”.