Lawyer Andy Appiah-Kubi has maintained his decision to withdraw from representing Ashanti Regional New Patriotic Party (NPP) Chairman, Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, in the ongoing Samreboi illegal mining case, despite the Accra High Court striking out his application to do so.
Speaking after proceedings at Criminal Court 4 of the Accra High Court on Monday, Appiah-Kubi argued that his client should be given adequate time to engage new legal representation before judgment is delivered.
“My next step is to withdraw officially by notice to the court that I have withdrawn and if it is the case that the court will not allow him enough time to engage counsel to continue with the prosecution of the matter, I leave it to the public to determine,” he said.
His comments came after the presiding judge, Justice Audrey Kocouvi-Tey, struck out his application seeking leave of the court to withdraw as counsel and reaffirmed July 3, 2026, as the date for judgment in the case.
Appiah-Kubi suggested that the rush toward judgment could undermine procedural fairness if a new lawyer is not given sufficient time to familiarize himself with the case.
According to him, although the evidential phase of the trial has ended, a new lawyer would still need time to study the court records, prepare legal submissions and determine whether additional applications should be filed.
“I cannot say at any point in time a new counsel comes in, you think that he wants to provide further evidence, but he has a right to make an application for a call of new witnesses and he needs to also study the brief and be able to deliver his address to the court,” he stated.
He questioned why the matter was being hurried to judgment when, in his view, all procedural avenues available to the accused person had not been exhausted.
“In all this, why are we rushing him to give him a judgment when we have not exhausted the procedural opportunities?” he asked.
Appiah-Kubi also linked his decision to withdraw to what he described as challenges with an appeal process, claiming that records required for the transmission of an appeal to the Court of Appeal had not been released.
“The appeal is dead and sleeping because somebody is refusing to release the file for the registry to mobilize the documents for transmission to the Court of Appeal,” he alleged.
The lawyer further defended his decision to formally apply to the court before withdrawing, arguing that legal precedent supports the need for counsel to properly notify the court and all parties involved when ending legal representation.
He insisted that despite his intention to step aside, he had continued to represent Chairman Wontumi and had not abandoned his client.
“Notwithstanding our intention to withdraw, we have stayed true to our client even to today,” he said.
Appiah-Kubi disclosed that he would now proceed to file a formal notice of withdrawal, which he believes will give Chairman Wontumi the opportunity to secure another lawyer ahead of the court’s judgment.
The court, however, maintained July 3, 2026, as the date for delivering judgment in the case.
SOURCE: MAVIS FANTEVI, JEFFERY MAWUTOR ATTIPOE-COURT CORRESPONDENT
