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According to former president John Mahama, the Akufo-Addo government has clogged Ghana’s courts in order to escape facing consequences after taking office.
Mr. Mahama revealed that some of the lawyers President Akufo-Addo had surpassed in the group during his address to the concluding session of the third lawyers conference, which was held at Akosombo in the Eastern region, and was organized by the NDC Lawyers Association.
“Our lawyers, some of you must be prepared to go unto the bunch, I know that some of you have very lucrative legal practices you will not want to leave and go unto the bunch. But you can see what the current President has done, he appointed the largest number of judges onto the bunch. More than 80 towards hundred and counting.
He’s packed the court and we know that they’ve packed the court because they want to avoid accountability after they have left office. So all manner of people who have been known to be partisan, to have been executives of their party who are in the legal profession have been leapfrogged onto the Superior courts and other places,” Mr. Mahama stated.
To restore complete trust and confidence in Ghana’s judicial system, the former president Mahama has also advocated judicial reforms.
He hurried to emphasize, though, that the judiciary should work in conjunction with the Executive arm rather than imposing reforms.
According to Mr. Mahama, the reform is required because public confidence in the judiciary, which should be the foundation of the nation’s democracy and rule of law, is waning.
“All opinion polling and other surveys that have been done show that the reputation of our judiciary is at its lowest and we all know what has contributed to this. There have been low level off credibility with the judiciary. Our people have always felt that there is monetary influence that influence judgement in both civil and criminal case and you remember the Anas exposure that led to the sacking of some judges”.
“But it has gone beyond monetary inducement. Now ,it is also seen that the judiciary is partisan and a lot of people feel that justice is not served in many cases and we bear the brunt of that .You feel that the judiciary is partisan and in many cases some of the decisions are quiet bizarre .We do believe that there must be judicial reform .Indeed when you interview most Ghanaians they believe that there must be some reform of the judiciary in order to bolster its reputation and make it an independent institution that, not only Ghanaians but foreign investors and any person who is in the jurisdiction of Ghana can trust”.
The former president claims that the judiciary’s influence has changed into partisanship, which has resulted in “bizarre” judgements on matters involving politics.
The government must not be able to force this on the judiciary, he stressed, but the judiciary and executive can work together to raise the status of the judiciary.
He instructed the NDC’s legal staff to consider “how we as the executive and members of the judiciary can work together to improve the image of the Ghanaian judiciary” as part of the conversations.
I think that if the judiciary’s reputation is strengthened, it will help people who work in the court, including the judges and judicial staff.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
