Lawyers Descend On Nana Konadu

Daily Guide -- Legal brains from the Law Chambers of Akufo-Addo, Prempeh & Co. have descended on the former first lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings for her recent verbal goof that Nana Akufo-Addo, a co-founder of the Law firm and presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is not a Lawyer.

Lawyer Alex Quaynor, a Senior Partner and Lawyer Akoto Ampaw, a Partner at the said Chambers have described Mrs. Rawlings’ foul goof as a “patent falsehood” that had been propagated earlier by the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah and Dr. Benjamin Kumbour, an NDC Member of Parliament. A press statement issued from the Akufo-Addo, Prempeh & Co. Chambers and jointly signed by Alex Quaynor and Akoto Ampaw noted: “Let Mrs. Rawlings know that such deliberate falsehoods do little for her integrity and reputation as a public figure.


“The vicious attempt by the former first lady and the General Secretary of NDC to score cheap political points by resorting to lies and defamatory statements is wholly unacceptable; especially given the position they occupy in Ghanaian public life and it only points to their political desperation.” The statement condemned the allegations coming from the NDC and its founder’s wife. Explaining the authenticity of Nana Addo’s Legal qualification, it said Nana Addo is not just an ordinary Lawyer with over 30 years of experience but also a notary, publicly appointed by the Chief Justice of Ghana.


“Let the public know that a lawyer, by virtue of Section 2 of the Legal Profession Act, 1960, (Act 32), is a person called to the Bar and whose name is recorded in the Roll of Lawyers. “Indeed, no person can lawfully practice Law in this country, unless he or she has been so enrolled; the qualifications of such a person are clearly spelt out in the enactment. “For the records, it is exactly 33 years, 8th July, 1975 to be precise, when Nana Addo was called to the Ghana Bar with enrollment No. 1190, having been called to the English Bar and enrolled at Middle Temple in July 1971,” it disclosed.

The statement said further that even during the period when Nana Konadu’s husband, Jerry Rawlings was President of Ghana, Nana Addo was the President of the Greater Accra Bar Association and a member of the General Legal Council, the body charged with the responsibility of the enrollment of lawyers in Ghana. It added: “What indeed gives the lie to these aspersions by Mrs. Rawlings and her ilk is the fact that even under the NDC era, Nana Akufo-Addo, as a lawyer, was the chairman of the Subsidiary Legislation Committee of the Parliament of Ghana.


“Not once did Mrs. Rawlings or any member of the NDC question his professional credentials as a bona fide lawyer; between 2001 and 2003, he held the high state office of Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Republic, a position held only by a lawyer. “Mrs. Rawlings should accordingly be advised that in her desperate political pursuit, she should desist from debasing herself with such manifest falsehood against the good name and reputation of an outstanding patriot, whom we are confident, come January 7, 2009, will be sworn into office as the next President of the Republic.”