Threatening the Judiciary is unjustifed - Kweku Baako

Mr. Kweku Baako Jnr., The Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide has asked the ruling NDC to stop its unnecessary criticisms against the country's judiciary.

He said threatening judges simply because the government has lost a number of high profile cases detracted from the democratic culture being nurtured in Ghana.
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On Tuesday August 17, after a press conference held by the NDC, the national chairman said "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."

Speaking on Peace FM's morning show Wednesday, Kweku Baako, said the claims that the judiciary was favouring members of the New Patriotic Party were baseless.

Mr. Baako said he had no problem with anybody criticising the judiciary, quoting Jerome Shestack, a former President of the American Bar Association who is credited as saying; “I have no problem with healthy criticism, every lawyer who appeals is criticizing a ruling”. 

Kweku Baako again quoted Jerome Shestack saying “But for criticisms that are personal attacks, criticism that would lead to political threat, criticisms that misrepresent and distort the nature and context of judicial decisions , and assigning a blame to judges for the ills of the society, damages the integrity of the judiciary, and threatens the doctrine of judicial independence, which is especially so when the criticisms are coming from a politician and it is aimed not only at an individual judge but the whole judiciary system is very fearful”.

Mr Baako contended that since the days of Nkrumah, ruling governments have had problems with the judiciary but none has ever tried to close down the whole judicial system and seek to supplant it with an alternative judicial system to favour the government as the NDC government is threatening to do.

Also on the show was Mrs. Ursula Owusu, a member of the NPP and a human rights activist who supported Kweku Baako's views and said if the government has a bad case and subsequently loses it in court, “Why should they threaten the judiciary?

She said, “Let us send the NDC back to where they belong because they do not understand what it means to govern according to the constitution of the Republic of Ghana with due respect for human rights and the rule of law”.

Story by: Benedicta Fafa Hoeyi/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana