Mahama’s 'balance out' remarks not an attack on judiciary – Edudzi Tamakloe

A leading member of the National Democratic Congress(NDC), Edudzi Tamakloe Esq has indicated that the former President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama did not attack the judiciary in his recent comments.

John Mahama while speaking at the 3rd Annual Lawyers Conference of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) said: “It is more than 80 towards 100 and counting. You can see what the current president has done.

"He has packed the court, and we know they have packed the court because they want to avoid accountability after they have left office”.

He indicated that it was imperative for NDC members to enter the judiciary in order to “balance out” the system, intimating, “We must be prepared as NDC legal persons to also go onto the bench so that we can balance out the judiciary”.

Some people in government have questioned the brain behind the former President’s comments and believe they are an attack on the Judiciary.

But speaking on Accra-based OKAY FM, Lawyer Edudzi Tamakloe indicated that the former President wasn’t attacking the Judiciary.

To him, John Dramani Mahama was just being critical about the various happenings in the Judiciary and the move by the current President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to appoint more Judges who are inclined to his political party in order to give them the opportunity of escaping accountability.

“A number of people have criticized the government. In the criticisms for example with the loan acquisitions especially under Mike Ocquaye’s tenure as speaker. When people talk about it, they say Parliament is also complicit. Is that an attack on Parliament? Is that an attack on the work of Parliament?

So there are three arms of government. There can be a fair critique of the Legislature and the Executive. So how come if someone raises concerns about the other half it is misconstrued to be an attack?

Background

Speaking at the 3rd Annual Lawyers Conference of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Saturday, Mr. Mahama, who is running for president again, said the NPP government has deliberately put its people on the bench.

According to him, President Nana Akufo-Addo has packed the courts with the view to avoid accountability upon leaving office, noting that the President has appointed the biggest number of judges onto the bench.

“It is more than 80 towards 100 and counting. You can see what the current president has done. He has packed the court, and we know they have packed the court because they want to avoid accountability after they have left office,” he stressed.

Mahama urged NDC members to enter the judiciary in order to “balance out” the system, intimating, “We must be prepared as NDC legal persons to also go onto the bench so that we can balance out the judiciary.”

His latest attack comes on the heels of a recent one in which he said that the image of the country’s judiciary has deteriorated, and that many of the citizenry openly make mockery of the justice system and of the justices.

“The phrase ‘go to court’ these days met with derisive laughter instead of hope that one will truly get justice if he went to the court.

“If people are not poking fun about politics and inducement being used to sway the hand of justice in the lower courts, then it is poking fun and making statements about the 7:0 of the unanimous FC. Verdicts which mostly involve cases of a political nature in our Supreme Court, this is an unfortunate but serious development,” the opposition leader stated.

He continued, “One of the scariest existential threats to any democracy is when citizens think their judiciary holds no value for them or no use to them, and this is the security threat that the National Security apparatus tried to draw the attention of the nation to recently but was poorly received by the President and his party.”

“It is scary because it threatens the peace and stability of our democracy and we must quickly correct this fast spreading notion. If care is not taken, we will get to a stage where people will have no qualms about taking the law into their own hands because they do not have the confidence that they can get any justice in the system,” the NDC flagbearer suggested.