The apex court has also nullified the execution of the bench warrant issued by Justice Emmanuel Senyo Amadehe following Mr Kumi's conviction.

As a result, Justice Amadehe has been barred from sentencing Mr Kumi for the contempt charge.

The decision was made in a 4-1 majority ruling, with Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang, the President of the bench, dissenting.

Justices Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, Ernest Gaewu, Henry Kwofi and Richard Adjei-Frimpong were on the majority side. 

However, the judge was unanimously prohibited from continuing to hear the election petition filed by Henry Boakye Yiadom, the National Democratic Congress parliamentary candidate in the 2024 election, who is challenging the results at the Koforidua High Court.

The judgment at the Supreme Court stems from a petition challenging the election results, which declared Kumi the winner with 19,269 votes against Boakye-Yiadom’s 17,206 votes.

On January 3, 2025, the High Court issued an interim injunction preventing Mr Kumi’s swearing-in.

This followed a lawsuit filed by Mr Boakye-Yiadom against the Electoral Commission (EC), Kumi, and the Clerk to Parliament.

Despite the injunction, Kumi proceeded to be sworn in on January 7, 2025.

In an earlier ruling at the High Court in January, the court dismissed an application by Kumi’s legal team, led by Mr Gary Nimako Marfo, seeking to set aside the interim injunction.

In February this year, the court issued a bench warrant for the arrest of Mr Kumi after finding him guilty of contempt.

Specifically, Justice Amedahe issued the order after it considered that the MP defied an injunction barring him from being sworn in as a Member of Parliament (MP) for the area on January 7, 2025.

The court also rejected a letter from the Minority Caucus of Parliament, which claimed that the MP was occupied with parliamentary duties and, therefore, unable to attend court.

In a motion on notice for an order for certiorari and prohibition filed at the Supreme Court, the MP through his counsel sought a declaration that the petition filed by Mr Boakye-Yiadom on  December 31, 2024.

This was in the absence of the gazette notification of the parliamentary election result to which the election relates was incompetent  as same did not properly invoke the jurisdiction of the High Court, and that “any order founded on the same is void  and of no effect.”

The MP was further praying for an order of certiorari from the Supreme Court quashing the Koforidua High Court’s ruling dated February 19, 2025, the petition filed on December 31, 2024, and Interim Injunction Order on January 2, 2025, and ruling on January 6, 2025, made pursuant to the said premature Election Petition filed on December 31, 2024.

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