Court
Lawyers for Development Data, the policy research and advocacy organization which filed a court case against the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and Tema Oil Refinery, has withdrawn the case.
The decision is as a result of the failure to serve the NPA, TOR and the other respondents with the entry of judgment. According to the lawyers of Development Data, once the oversight was acknowledged the application was withdrawn for the necessary amendments to be made.
The Executive Director of Development Data, Kwaku Kwarteng, in an interview said once the anomalies are corrected the lawyers will file the entry of judgment and the contempt application subsequently.
“It is due to a very technical point. Even the NPA and TOR were in court the day judgment was given where they were told to stay execution on it at the high court and the appeals court. There is still the need technically to serve an entry of appearance on them, otherwise it is as though they do not know about judgment,” he said.
“Now this was the technical point that was raised by their side. So we went to court today to say we want to withdraw the application. We would do that, but that is to say, we would serve the entry of judgment on them and then we would then file the contempt application. So that is why we sought to withdraw it temporarily today,” Mr. Kwarteng noted.
Development Data in the suit claims a declaration that the ex-refinery differential component of the ex-refinery price imposed by the NPA was illegal. They also claimed the ex-pump prices announced by the NPA in June 2009 on the basis of the ex-refinery prices were not in accordance with the prescribed petroleum pricing formula, making it unlawful.
