Court defers ruling on GMOs to July 22

The Accra Fast Track High Court has deferred the ruling on the interlocutory injunction filed by Food Sovereignty Ghana (FSG) on the commercialization of Genetically Modified Foods (GMOs) in the country to July 22.
The decision was to allow the Convention People’s Party (CPP) to file a supplementary affidavit in support of the injunction application pending before the court.
At the court proceedings where striking State Attorneys were absent, the Court gave CPP up to July 15 to file their supplementary application.
FSG, the first plaintiff has filed an injunction to prevent the national bio-safety committee, established under the bio-safety Act from commercializing such food products.
Nine parties, comprising four plaintiffs and five defendants have so far been granted official request to battle it out for/against the commercialization of GMOs.
Plaintiffs
The FSG and the CPP were joined in the suit by the Vegetarian Association of Ghana and the Kanyan Akuafuo Kuo Society from the Brong Ahafo Region.
At the previous hearing on June 16, 2015, the judge granted the request by counsel for the third and fourth plaintiffs to join the case.
Justice Kofi Essel Mensah, after granting the request, directed the counsel of the plaintiffs to amend their case and appear in court yesterday for the ruling on the interlocutory injunction, but the ruling was deferred.
FSG is claiming that the Cartagena Protocol on bio-safety, of which Ghana is a signatory, the bio-safety Act, 2011, Act 831, as well as the Legislative Instrument 1887, which established the National bio-safety committee, have not been respected.
The CPP over the past months have led a campaign against the passing and implementation of a law which will allow government to legalize GM products in the country.
The defendants in the suit are National Bio-safety Committee, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the National Bio-safety Authority, the Attorney General’s department and the Ghana National Association of Fishermen and Farmers.
Credit: Heritage