E-Levy case: A-G’s commentary on Edudzi’s performance in court unacceptable – Dafeamekpor
The Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor says it is unacceptable and unnecessary for the Attorney General, Godfred Dame to cast insinuations at the performance of the Minority’s lawyer, Godwin Edudzi-Tamakloe in court.
This follows the rejection of an injunction application at the Supreme Court brought against the implementation of the controversial Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy).
Reacting to the ruling, Mr Dame said the performance of Mr Edudzi-Tamakloe was embarrassing as he failed to provide evidence to back his arguments in Court.
“You saw what happened in court today. It was an embarrassing spectacle. The lawyer clearly was not able to demonstrate any form of irregularities with proceedings in Parliament. The court asked him, so is there any record that indicates that X number of MPs walked out at a certain stage?”
“He obviously said no, there was no evidence indicating whether there was a headcount of a number of MPs present in Parliament who voted to support the bill. There was also nothing indicated by the lawyer which suggests there was a walkout of X number of MPs, so I think we should ignore all that propaganda,” he said.
But in a sharp rebuttal, Mr Dafeamekpor took exception to the Attorney-General’s comment and added that he was not supposed to describe his fellow lawyer in that manner.
“You could make your legal argument, you could say that your argument as canvassed in opposition to the application prevail, that is what we say do lawyers. But don’t tell the general public that his performance today was embarrassing,” he said on Accra-based Joy News.
He added that “as a practicing lawyer who has also practiced before in Supreme Court on several occasions, I think Edudzi distinguished himself.”
“Edudzi was answering about four questions at the time from the judges. The judges didn’t hound the A-G in that manner. At a point, four judges were asking Edudzi four different questions at the same time, and he was able to respond to each and every one of them for the A-G to miss a course and take to the media to say that his performance today was embarrassing, is with all due respect to him, unacceptable,” he stressed.
