[ 2015-04-24 ]

Judgment Day For Cedi Case
The Supreme Court is set to deliver judgment in a
case in which an Accra-based lawyer and banking
lecturer, John Ephraim Baiden, is praying the
court to compel the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to
stabilize the national currency (cedi).

The announcement was made by Justice Sophia
Adinyera, the presiding judge, after all parties
to the action had filed their written
submissions.

The justice announced that judgment would be
delivered on July 22, 2015.

The plaintiff represented himself in court while
Samuel Cudjoe was counsel for the BoG with Mrs.
Grace Ewool, state attorney.

Baiden filed the suit early this year after the
cedi had depreciated against the major foreign
currencies and attempts to halt the depreciation
yielded no results,

The plaintiff is seeking a declaration that upon
the true and proper interpretation of Article
183(2)(a) of the 1992 Constitution and Section
4(b) the Bank of Ghana Act 2002, the Central Bank
had failed to promote and maintain a stable
currency for Ghana.

When the case was first called, the defendant
raised a preliminary objection on the grounds that
the Supreme Court was the wrong forum, but the
court asked that the bank should first respond to
the plaintiff’s case before the objection would
be considered.

The bank noted that in granting the reliefs of the
plaintiff, the court would go beyond its area of
legal expertise and that the issue before the
court was a nonjustifiable political question
which should have no place in the court room.

The bank was of the opinion that to grant the
reliefs the banking lecturer was seeking, the
court would become either a department of monetary
affairs of state or be exercising the finance
ministry’s functions.

The defendant further believed that the court
would have to make technical monetary decisions
including making a preference for a fixed exchange
rate regime, if it would grant the plaintiff’s
reliefs and consequently asked for the suit to be
dismissed altogether.

Mr Baiden on the other hand, claimed the bank had
failed to respond to the issues he had raised,
adding that BoG had not challenged his data on the
poor performance of the cedi.

The cedi, between December 2013 and November 2014
had fallen in value from GH¢2.16 to GH¢3.19 to
the dollar.

Other Justices in the case are Vida Akoto Bamfo,
Jones Dotse, Anin Yeboah, Sule Gbadegbe, K. Benin
and J.K. Akamba.

Source - Daily Guide

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