Judges To Boycott Top Lawyer

A bird within the corridors of the judiciary have whispered into the ears of our roving scouts that a ''tsunami'' is about to hit the ''professional territory'' of Dr. Raymond Atuguba, an eminent legal practitioner and the Executive Secretary of the Constitutional Review Commission(CRC).

The ''tsunami'' originating from the depths of the Ghanaian Judiciary appears to have been provoked by some categorical allegations of corruption against judges made by Dr. Atuguba at a roundtable discussion on the judiciary and Ghana’s justice system and which he subsequently re-inforced in an interview with JOY FM on Friday, April 29, 2011.

Dr. Atuguba had told his audience that ''nobody in the country can convince me that judges do not take bribes''. He went on to narrate his personal experience in situations where he witnessed some litigants allegedly bringing ''bribes'' to the official residences of some judges who received them and to the residences of others who rejected them.

“Between 1997 and 1999, I stayed in the house of a judge, and so there is nobody in Ghana who can convince me that judges are not corrupt,” he stated. According to him, “immediately they mention the title of the case, then you knew that, no, this is not a visitor coming to leave a gift, this a bribe for the judge next door.”

The Executive Secretary of the CRC continued that, in his association with a man he described as an “upright judge”, he noticed on a number of occasions when the judge returned bribes, adding, “at times I had to assist him to drive some of the people away”.

No specific names were however mentioned in his explosive narration.

Dr. Atuguba's explosive story, coming as it were from a lawyer of his standing, attracted front page coverage in the April 30, 2011 edition of the state-owned Daily Graphic and other leading Ghanaian private newspapers as well as the various electronic networks including myjoyonline.com, peacefmonline.com, citifmonline.com and ghanaweb.com.

The extensive coverage of Dr. Atuguba's story coupled with the recent wave of unsubstantiated allegations of corruption against judges and the near bastardisation of the judiciary by some politicians and social commentators, appear to have got the ''goat'' of the judges who it seems have decided to accept the challenge apparently being thrown out at them by the likes of Dr. Atuguba, Larry Bimi, Abraham Amaliba and David Annan; all members of the bar.

According to the whispering of the bird, the first reaction emanated from the corridors of the Supreme Court whose judges met last Tuesday, May 10, 2011 and prepared a formal complaint to the General Legal Council (GLC). Subsequently, on Friday, May 13, 2011, the National Executives and Regional Representatives of the Association of Magistrates & Judges of Ghana (AMJG) met and decided to take over the issue from the Supreme Court Judges. It was decided that the AMJG should pursue the matter by formally lodging a complaint to the General Legal Council (GLC).

The GLC is the statutory body with the responsibility to discipline lawyers in the country through its Disciplinary Committee. At the May 13th meeting it was also decided that the following lawyers who had made categorical statements on corruption in the Judiciary should be investigated and made to substantiate their allegations.

The lawyers in question are Larry Bimi, who is also the Chairman of the National Commission on Civic Education(NCCE), Abraham Amaliba, a private legal practitioner, David Annan, a member of the ruling NDC's Legal Team, and of course, Dr. Raymond Atuguba.

Statements made by the mentioned personalities categorically alleging corruption in the Judiciary in media outlets like the Daily Graphic, The Herald, The New Palaver and myjoyonline.com, including an oral/audio production of Dr. Atuguba's interview on JOY FM were critically examined by the members of the Association of Magistrates and Judges of Ghana(AMJG) who attended the May 13th meeting.

Subsequent to the above, and in view of the seriousness which was attached to the ''bribery story'' narrated by Dr. Atuguba, IT WAS RESOLVED THAT SINCE ATUGUBA SAYS THAT ALL JUDGES TAKE BRIBES, JUDGES WILL RECUSE THEMSELVES FROM ANY CASE IN WHICH HE APPEARS AS COUNSEL UNTIL HIS ASSERTIONS HAVE BEEN INVESTIGATED AND HE HAS BEEN GIVEN THE CHANCE TO SUBSTANTIATE THEM.

''Our position is that it is not that we cannot be criticised. But we insist that the criticism should be merited. To say all judges take bribes is a matter which should be investigated and those ones he can prove to be corrupt, named and punished. If he cannot substantiate that, then the necessary sanctions should be imposed on him'', articulated an angry member of the AMJG who spoke to our roving scouts on the condition of strict confidentiality.

Meanwhile this paper will continue to make frantic efforts to reach Mr. Atuguba for his reactions on the matter, as efforts to reach him yesterday proved fruitless.

This paper’s sources further indicated that a communiqué reflecting the views of AMJG is expected to be made public soon.