Posted on" www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Wednesday August 18, 2010
‘‘People in the judiciary can make a very good case look very bad. If the judiciary is biased, if the judiciary has made its mind in one direction, not even Jesus Christ who was appointed as the Attorney General(sic) can change things. We will clean it if they don’t take steps to clean it. We will clean it and let everybody everywhere blame us for interfering in the judiciary and we will take them on. … at the right time, you will see how we clean it. There are many ways to kill a cat’’. - Dr. Kwabena Adjei, NDC Chairman.
It started with irate activists and foot-soldiers of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) calling for the heads of some judges in the country following recent series of legal defeats the President John Evans Atta Mills administration has suffered in the law courts.
Now, it is official. The leadership of the party led by its National Chairman, Dr. Kwabena Adjei has endorsed the undemocratic acts, saying that the judiciary is “becoming politicised and biased in dispensing justice.”
The party has therefore decided to take the battle straight to the judges with threatening messages and inciting the party’s foot soldiers against the members of the Bench.
Dr. Kwabena Adjei, served notice that the executive arm of government could intervene and ‘save the image of the Judiciary’ if the Chief Justice does not act quickly to correct growing public criticisms that the Judiciary has increasingly become politically biased.
According to him some judges are fast losing credibility and therefore asked Chief Justice Georgina Wood, to intercede and reverse the trend otherwise the government could be compelled to intervene and save the image of the judiciary from sinking further, if the Chief Justice fails to fight what he sees as growing rot within the judiciary.
Dr. Kwabena Adjei said these in an interview with Citi FM yesterday soon after addressing a press conference in Accra to express outrage at recent court rulings which have all gone against the state.
The NDC boss asked members of the NDC who are outraged by recent court rulings against the state to redirect their anger at the Judiciary, instead of continuing to attack the Attorney General and Minister of Justice.
But his attack has received equally harsh responses from legal brains who described the ruling party’s chairman’s comments as not only disgraceful but embarrassing.
According to Samuel Okudzeto, a former president of Ghana Bar Association (GBA), and Samuel Atta Akyea, MP for Abuakwa South, the comments by the NDC chairman were to effect undermine the very foundation of the constitution which President Atta Mills had sworn to defend.
Mr. Atta Akyea of Zoe, Akyea and Co, said it was a sad day for the country for the obvious intervention of the NDC in the judicial process.
The GBA, also in a statement, expressed concern about the unguarded comments by the public about the judiciary, asking the public to leave the judges alone to perform their duties.
In a statement issued in Accra and signed by Anthony Forson Jnr., PRO of the association noted that the criticism of judges should be carried out with utmost circumspection. “Criticise with decorum and not with venom,” it said.
Kwabena Adjei asked the foot soldiers to redirect their anger at the Judges instead of blaming the Attorney General and the party hierarchy. ‘‘Our party members are angry but we take the leadership decisions and they listen to us. We tell them that they should be patient and leave the A-G alone and they will do just that. Laymen are different from lawyers so from their perspective, it is because the cases are being lost, they put the blame on the Attorney General’’ he said.
At the press conference to state the NDC’s position on the recent Fast Track High Court’s decision on the Ghana @ 50 case, the party leaders accused the Chief Justice and the entire judiciary of “grand conspiracy” to ensure NDC loses cases in the law courts.
Reading a five-page statement which was titled “NDC news conference on the High Court decision on the Ghana @ 50 case and other issues” at the party’s headquarters in Accra yesterday, Dr. Adjei said “while the NDC remains committed to the rule of law for a better Ghana, we cannot help but take note of the growing perception and suspicion among the various segments of our society that the judiciary is becoming politicized and biased in dispensing justice.”
He said “we in the NDC wish to give the judiciary the benefit of the doubt and are convinced that there are men and women in the judiciary who are committed to maintaining the integrity of the law.”
He said “but it is pertinent to point to certain circumstances and events both before and after the coming into office of HE President Mills which cast doubts in people’s mind as to whether some members of the bench are committed to maintaining the integrity of the law.”
Dr. Adjei said “there are unfortunate rumours and allegations making the rounds that a leading member of the NPP has on weekly basis been having meetings with leading members of the judiciary for the purpose of aiding the defendants in cases affecting leading members of the NPP.
“There are those who believe these are not coincidences but may be linked to a grand conspiracy. In order to preserve the people’s faith in the independence and sanctity of the judiciary, we appeal to the Chief Justice to endeavour to take concrete and rapid steps to correct the growing public perception that the judiciary has become increasingly politically biased.”
The NDC warned that Dr. Wereko-Brobby, former Chief Executive Officer of the defunct Ghana @50 Secretariat, and Kwadwo Mpiani, former Chief of Staff in the erstwhile NPP administration, are still not free and would have to answer for the various roles they played during the 50th Independence Anniversary and the 2007 African Union Summit hosted by Ghana.
He added: “Following the High Court decision, the Chairman of the NPP, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey and his cohorts have gone on a media propaganda rampage to create the impression that the discharge of Dr. Wereko-Brobby and Mr. Mpiani exonerates them from any wrong doing. This is completely false. The report of the Douse Commission and its recommendations still stand.”
According to the NDC chairman, the two men have caused “huge financial loss and must pay the appropriate penalty.”
Present at the news conference were Yaw Boateng Gyan (National Organizer), Anita de Souza (National Women’s Organizer), Richard Quashigah (Propaganda Secretary), Chris Ackumey (Member of the NDC legal team) among other party stalwarts.
1 comment:
These politicians will take advantage of every situation to polarized the country. They better be stopped in their tracks. This country is not for NPP or NDC, but all Ghanaians.
Post a Comment