NDC's threat on the judiciary is childish and shameful - Okudzeto

Sam Okudzeto, Past President of the Ghana Bar Association         A Past President of the Ghana Bar Association Mr Sam Okudzeto has lambasted the National Chairman of the NDC, Dr. Kwabena Adjei for a statement he made cautioning the Chief Justice to clean up the judiciary or else the government would be forced to intervene. Dr. Kwabena Adjei, after a news conference in Accra to express outrage at recent court rulings which have all gone against the state, told Citi FM that the government will 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. "People in the judiciary can make a very good case look very bad. If the judiciary is bias, if the judiciary has made its mind in one direction, not even Jesus Christ who is appointed as the Attorney General 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." Asked how the cleaning would be done, he responded "That one at the right time, you will see how we clean it. There are many ways to kill a cat," he said. But according to the Past GBA President, Sam Okudzeto, the statement is an affront to the country’s judiciary which is the most respected on the African continent. He said Mr. Kwabena Adjei’s statement was totally nonsensical, shameful and childish. "I don’t know whether he is in his right mind or not, sorry for terms of this nature but it is frightening to hear a person in that august position make statements of that nature. It may be that he doesn’t even understand the whole nature of the constitutional framework that we have in this country, and the international respect that people have for us. "Investors are coming into the country to invest because they are assured when there is a dispute between them and the state, there is an impartial decision [maker] to sit on the cases. So by so doing you are driving away investors" he said. "How do you clean up a judiciary in the first place? The framework for setting up the judiciary is established under the constitution. Judges have tenure of office and it’s a lifetime appointment and until the age of retirement which is in the constitution, you can’t remove them unless the provisions for removal are there. But if a judge gives a ruling that you do not agree with, that is not a basis to say you are going to clean the judiciary. I think what they have done is very serious". Mr. Sam Okudzeto noted that the action of the NDC Chairman subverts the constitution which has given basis for parliament, the executive and the Judiciary itself. He said the government has no power or authority under the constitution to impugn the the integrity of the judiciary. According to him, even the constitutional provision that does not put an upper limit to the number of judges appointed to the Supreme Court, cannot necessarily be used by government to clean up the judiciary. "You don’t clean up judiciary by a process of that nature because the question about the upper limit is just an argument for that sake of an argument in the sense that, in the Supreme Court, it’s only a certain number of people that sit. There are five on a normal appeal and then there is a seven per review. Now we have more than thirteen judges on the Supreme Court and they sit in a panel which is constituted by the Chief Justice so what are you cleaning". "Even if you add more Judges what does it change? You must bear the economic consequences because you are going to pay all those people and they are entitled to stay there and retire on their salaries so these are serious matters and you don’t have to make wild statements of that nature. The country does not belong to any political party and it is time we grow up and stop this behavior. It is absolutely childish. They should be ashamed of themselves," he fumed. Source: Citifmonline.com