GBA threatens strike

THE Ashanti Regional branch of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) has resolved to withdraw its services in reaction to a call by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on the Chief Justice to purge the bench of corrupt and politically biased judges.
In a press statement signed and issued in Kumasi by Mr J. Osei Kofi, the acting Ashanti Regional President of the GBA, the members said the tenor of the statement by the NDC amounted to “intimidation and threat to the Chief Justice and members of the Judiciary”.
As a result, it stated, the members of the branch had resolved at an emergency meeting yesterday held on the High Court premises in Kumasi to withdraw their services.
It did not state for how long but said members had taken that action “in solidarity with the Judiciary and in protest against the blatant attempt to intimidate the Chief Justice and other Judges”.
The members said they were withdrawing their services pending a definite decision on the matter by the National Bar Council as to the line of action to be taken to address “this veiled threat to the Judiciary and the Rule of Law in the Nation”.
In a related development, two other lawyers and a politician have criticised the leadership of the NDC for the call on the Chief Justice to purge the judiciary.
They were unanimous in their view that the call by the party was an affront to the independence of the Judiciary, a threat to the rule of law and the democratic process.
In separate reactions, the three, a lawyer and member of the Convention People’s Party, Mr Bright Akwetey, a former President of the GBA, Mr Sam Okudzeto and a leading member of the New Patriotic Party, Dr Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe, called on the NDC Chairman, Dr Kwabena Adjei, to withdraw the statements in order to give assurance to the business community and the rest of Ghanaians of the commitment of the government to the principles of justice and the independence of the Judiciary.
Mr Akwetey said “Calling on the CJ to purge the judiciary or the party would purge it itself amounted to ominous threat to democracy and the good of the country,” he said.
He expressed disappointment at the posture and pronouncement of the NDC Chairman targeted at the Judiciary, which was a creation of the 1992 Constitution.
He said the framers of the constitution had provided enough grounds in Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution for the removal of judges of the superior courts and that any other means apart from the constitutionally prescribed procedure should not be allowed.
Mr Akwetey said such a threat, coming after the country had witnessed the gruesome killing of some judges by some individuals simply because they had problems with them, should be of grave concern to all.
Article 146 of the Constitution states that: “A Justice of the Superior Court or a Chairman of the Regional Tribunal shall not be removed from office except for stated misbehaviour or incompetence or on the ground of inability to perform the functions of his office arising from infirmity of body or mind”.
For his part, Mr Okudzeto described the NDC’s statement as a serious insult to the bench that was most respected in Africa.
He said it was frightening for a chairman of the political party to make statements of that nature about the constitutional framework that Ghanaians had in this country.
Dr Tamakloe said if President J.E.A. Mills was indeed committed to the rule of law as a learned lawyer, he must call his party comrades who “are currently prosecuting an agenda of persecution, hate and vendetta against the Judiciary to order”.
Dr Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe, who served as Ghana’s Ambassador to Serbia and Montenegro during the Kufuor administration, said an intervention was quickly needed from the President if he truly believed in the tenets of democracy, adding that the ongoing politically-motivated trials would only do little in healing the sharp wounds of the people.
He alleged that so far the NDC had engaged in politically-motivated, Soviet-style show trial, hence its losses in the court.
“These cases are not driven by rational legal analysis but rather a determination to please party faithful and also justify wild and scurrilous allegations that the NDC made during the 2008 electioneering,” he said.