Supreme Court panel of justices hearing the presidential election petition have given the petitioner, John Mahama and his legal team up to Wednesday, 27 January 2021 to file a supplementary witness statement.

 This follows the petitioner’s refusal to file their witness statement on the earlier scheduled date.

The former president and his legal team were supposed to have filed their witness statements on 21 January 2021.

But, co-counsel for Mr Mahama, Tony Lithur, who took the place of lead counsel Tsatsu Tsikata in his absence in court on Tuesday, 26 January 2021 explained they had not filed the witness statement because they had earlier filed stay of proceedings application to allow for the possible review of the ruling on his attempt to serve interrogatories on the Electoral Commission (EC).

Mr Lithur argued that “Filing processes while the application for stay of proceedings is pending will amount to taking a first step which may be used against us in determining the application”.

The court, however, ordered that petitioners file the witness statement by Wednesday, 27 January 2021.

Lawyers for the second respondent, President Akufo-Addo believes the petitioners are unnecessarily delaying the hearing of the election petition.