Nana Akufo-Addo interacts with his officials
Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Wednesday April 10, 2013.
The General Legal Council once confirmed
that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, presidential candidate of the opposition New
Patriotic Party (NPP) in the December 2012 general election, is indeed a
qualified lawyer.
The General Legal Council’s
confirmation formed part of the exhibits attached by Nana Akufo-Addo in
response to a suit filed against him by a retired Supreme Court justice and a
leading member of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Justice Francis
Yaonansu Kpegah that the NPP candidate is not a lawyer.
The letter confirming Nana
Akufo-Addo as a qualified lawyer had been written in October 16, 2007, when he
first filed his nomination to contest as the NPP’s presidential candidate for
the 2008 election and could not find his certificate.
The letter had nothing to do
with Justice Kpegah’s instant suit and was only being used as defense by Nana Akufo-Addo
to disprove the plaintiff’s claims.
The letter then signed by E. Bart-Plange
Brew, Acting Administrative Secretary on behalf of the Secretary, General Legal
Council said “I certify that Mr.
William Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo was enrolled and called to the Ghana Bar
at a meeting of the General Legal Council held at the Supreme Court, Supreme
Court Building on Tuesday, 8th July, 1975.”
It continued: “I have been informed of the loss of Mr. William Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo's Qualifying
and Enrolment certificates. This note, therefore, serves to confirm his
enrolment.”
The Chief Justice chairs the General Legal Council.
Middle Temple
As if that is not enough, the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple in England has also
written to confirm that Nana Akufo-Addo is a lawyer who went through their
institution and has paid all his dues.
A letter
written on April 5, 2013 and signed by the Under Treasurer, Middle Temple said “These
are to certify that William Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo BA of Ghana University and
of 162 Ambassadorial Enclave, East Legon, P.O. Box 207, Accra, Ghana, was
specially admitted to the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple on the
thirteenth day of January one thousand nine hundred and sixty-nine and called
to the degree of the Utter Bar on the twenty second day of July One thousand
nine hundred and seventy one and published in the common Dining Hall of the
said Society on the same day and that he hath paid all Duties which were owing
by him to the Society and the Officers thereunto belonging.”
“In
Testimony whereof I have hereunto set my Hand and the seal of the said Society
this twenty second day of October in the fifty sixth year of the Reign of Our
Gracious Sovereign Lady, Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain Northern Ireland and of her other Realms,
Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, and in the
Year of our Lord Two thousand and seven.”
Kpegah’s Claims
Justice Kpegah is claiming that Nana Akufo-Addo is
“not entitled to practice law in Ghana,” and also wants the authorities to
close down the law firm Akufo-Addo, Prempeh and Co, established by the NPP 2012
candidate which arguably is one of the best in the country.
Justice Kpegah - A retired Supreme Court judge in Ghana
Nana’s
Rebuttal
But Nana Akufo-Addo has not taken kindly to the
retired justice’s claims and has responded sharply to the suit describing the
claims as not only frivolous and vexatious but one unworthy of hearing by the
High Court.
He said Justice Kpegah should be punished for his
frivolities in instituting the action.
In an affidavit deposed to by Nana Akufo-Addo himself
on April 3, he said what Justice Kpegah is seeking to do is an abuse of the
court’s process and had also not disclosed any reasonable cause of action.
According to Nana Akufo-Addo,
“the plaintiff’s action fails to canvass facts necessary to form the basis of
any issue worthy of a proper hearing by this Honourable Court.
W.E.D versus W.A.D
“In one part of his pleadings
(paragraph 5), plaintiff alleges that I am impersonating one W.E.D. AKUFO-ADDO who was called to
the Middle Temple on 22nd July, 1971 and is also on the Roll of
Lawyers in Ghana as No. 1190. That in another part of the same pleadings
(paragraph 11), plaintiff alleges that the person I am impersonating is not W.E.D.
AKUFO-ADDO but rather a certain W.A.D. AKUFO- ADDO who is also on the
same Roll of Lawyers with the same No. 1190.”
He said “I cannot be impersonating two persons with the
same number on the same Roll of Lawyers in Ghana, and the instant action is
demonstrably frivolous and founded on mischief.”
He said the plaintiff concedes the fact that he, (Nana Akufo-Addo),
was called to the English Bar (Middle Temple) in the same year as the person(s)
bearing the no. 1190 on the Roll of Lawyers in Ghana, that he (Kpegah) claims
he was impersonating.
The William Factor
He averred that Nana Addo Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and
William Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo are one and the same person and added that “I
studied law in England and was consequently duly and specially admitted to the
Honourable Society of the Middle Temple (one of the four (4) Inns of Court in
England) on 13th January, 1969 as William Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.”
“On 22nd July, 1971, after passing the English
Bar examination, I was duly called to the Utter Bar of the Middle Temple and
have since been a properly qualified member of that Honourable Society, as
admitted to by Plaintiff in paragraph 15 of his statement of claim. Attached
herewith and marked as Exhibit "NADA 1" is a copy of a certification
from the Under Treasurer of the Middle Temple”, he said.
Nana Akufo-Addo said “by virtue of paragraph 15 of his
statement of claim, plaintiff is aware that I am a Member of English Bar
(Middle Temple), and therefore ought to know that the name in which I was
called to the English Bar was William Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. The fact that I,
in my professional life, have been referred to as Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
has not created any act of impersonation of any person.
He said on returning to Ghana, he undertook the post-call
law programme required of lawyers who have qualified abroad and after passing
the relevant examination adding “I was duly called to the Ghana Bar on 8th
July, 1975 as William Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.”
As Attorney-General
Nana Akufo-Addo said since 1975 when he was enrolled he
has always “been a lawyer in good standing and was even appointed validly to
the office of Attorney-General of the Republic in accordance with
Article 88 of the Constitution and other laws of Ghana.”
He said “the mere fact that in my law practice, I choose
to be called Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo does not mean that I am impersonating
anybody and accordingly, the Plaintiff has in his pleadings, failed to make out
a case fit and proper for the consideration of this Honourable Court.”
Ace
Anan Ankomah, a legal luminary said when one is called to the bar, the person
receives two certificates.
“The
first is the Qualifying Certificate in Law issued by the General Legal Council,
under section 13 of the Legal Profession Act, and the other is the Certificate
of Enrolment issued by the Judicial Secretary under section 6. Under section 3
of the Act, you need the former to obtain the latter. The latter, the enrolment
Certificate, merely evidences that a person's name is on the Roll of Lawyers.
When I was called, I did not receive my enrolment certificate that day. I got
it after a couple of months, but I was still allowed to practice during that
time, because upon the call, my name was entered in the Roll of Lawyers, and it
is that entry in the Roll of Lawyers that matters, not the paper evidence of
the entry!
“It is not the certificates or your continued
keeping or loss of them that allow you to practice law in Ghana. Rather it is
the fact that you have qualified and that you have been enrolled”, he wrote on
his facebook wall yesterday to kill the mischief about Nana Addo’s law certificate.
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