Under fire NDC chair says his comments sought to strengthen judiciary

Dr. Kwabena Adjei, Chairman of the National Democratic Congress         Chairman of the National Democratic Congress, Dr. Kwabena Adjei, says his comments about biases in the judiciary have been misconstrued. Dr. Adjei at a press conference in Accra on Tuesday provoked serious public sentiments when he cautioned the Chief Justice to embark on a house cleaning exercise to rid the bench of corrupt and biassed judges or the NDC will do it for her. "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 (when) 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," Dr Kwabena Adjei had warned. He has since those comments, come under a barrage of criticisms with lawyers and members of the opposition New Patriotic Party being in the vanguard of lunging the flak. Members of the Ashanti Regional branch of the Ghana Bar Association Wednesday announced a withdrawal of their services in protest of the comments by the NDC chair. But Dr. Kwabena Adjei has told Joy News Wednesday, his comments have been twisted for political gains. He told Joy News' Sammy Darko in an interview his comments were to “assuage the feeling of people who feel disappointed” at the current court judgements which have mostly been in favour of the defence. He also insisted that the statement was to “restore confidence in the judiciary” and to ensure that the “self correcting measures” of the judiciary were upheld. He denied ever issuing instructions to the Chief Justice to clean up the bench but said the NDC can adopt constitutional means to dispense of the services of the Chief Justice Theodora Georgina Wood. Story by Nathan Gadugah/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana