Marietta Brew Oppong, Fui Tsikata decline national award for their roles in ITLOS case

Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, legal practitioner and a former Attorney General of Ghana and Minister for Justice of Ghana and Mr Fui Tsikata, senior partner at Reindorf Chambers, the Ghana member firm of the DLA Piper Africa Group of law firms, have rejected national awards offered them by the state for the role they played in Ghana’s Maritime dispute with Côte d’Ivoire.

The two legal practitioners during the Mahama Administration, led the process to institute the action at the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).

However, due to the change of government in January 2017, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Gloria Akuffo and his then Deputy, Godfred Yeboah Dame (now Attorney General), picked up the case, argued it and secured Ghana’s victory in 2017.

Initial appreciation

On 20 October 2017, President Akufo-Addo hosted the entire legal team from both sides of the political divide at the Jubilee House, to register the appreciation of the state to them for their collaborative effort that secured the country the victory.

Speaking at the said event, President Akufo Addo recalled all the contributions made by his predecessors under the 4th Republican Constitution of Ghana in the oil sector that has resulted in the ITLOS victory of 2017.

The ceremony was attended by the late former President J.J. Rawlings and his wife, Nana K. Agyemang Rawlings, former government officials in John Mahama administration who initiated the court process, officials of the current NPP government who argued the case at the ITLOS as well as some of the international lawyers who represented Ghana during the hearing.

At the meeting, President Akufo-Addo hinted that at the appropriate time, National honours will be conferred on the team that worked to secure the victory for Ghana.

The two, Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong and Fui Tsikata, did not express any misgivings about the national awards then, however, when the right time came on Tuesday 14 March 2023, they failed to show up for the award ceremony held at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC).

Asaase News checks with its sources at the State Protocol Department indicate that the two national award recipients did not give any prior signal of their decision not to accept the national award.

Awards ceremony

Addressing awardees and attendees at the ceremony to confer national awards on deserving persons, President Akufo-Addo noted that the awards are essentially to recognize “our foreign friends and partners who aided us [Ghana] in that enterprise [the adjudication of the ITLOS case].

“To the men and women who made sure that the maritime boundary dispute with our immediate, western neighbour, the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire, ended favourably for the Republic of Ghana, thereby, ensuring that our western maritime resources, including its oil and gas potential, rightfully remained in our possession, and to certain outstanding citizens whose work has brought renown and merit to our nation’s development” the President said.

“Our victory in the maritime boundary dispute could not have been achieved through the actions of one person, one political party or one government.

“It was a collective effort, and it is for this reason that the important roles played by successive governments and groups of individuals, cannot not be overlooked, discounted or understated.

“The judgment of the Tribunal has brought finality to a maritime boundary dispute that had been extant for over five decades” he added.

Benefits of ITLOS victory

Laying emphasis on the overall benefit that the settlement of the maritime dispute has brought Ghana, President Akufo-Addo said “although the precise economic impact has yet to be conclusively established, what has emerged quite clearly is that our western maritime boundary remains intact. Indeed, many were those who feared that the outcome of the judgement could strain the friendship that exists between Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire”.

“On the contrary, thanks largely to the spirit of understanding and accommodation exhibited by that great African statesman, President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire, it has rather strengthened the bonds of co-operation.

Indeed, we now have a Strategic Partnership Agreement, Accord de Partenariat Stratégique, with Cote d’Ivoire, negotiated by President Ouattara and I” the President stated.

Others awards

Apart from the two main categories of awardees, that is the COVID-19 and ITLOS awardees, there was a third category of awardees of a few individuals whose work according to President Akufo-Addo, “deserve the plaudits of the nation”.

The individuals were; the late great philosopher, Prof. Johnson Kwame Wiredu, by common consent one of the outstanding philosophers of global repute of the modern age.

He was given a befitting posthumous award, Order of the Volta – Companion. The rest are Ms Margaret Sophia Darkwah, the first female Commissioner of Police, Professor Akwasi Osei, former Chief Executive of the Mental Health Authority and Dr Veronica Agartha Martinson, former Executive Director of the Cocoa Research Institute, Ghana.

Wilberforce Asare

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