Mills Has Targeted The Judiciary- Former GBA Boss

Ripples From NDC Chairman’s ‘Killing The Cat’ Gaffe…

…And Says They Have “Passed Through The Valley Of Death”!

Just as political watchers were drawing curtains on the much criticized ‘killing the cat’ political gaffe by the National Chairman of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), a former President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Paul Adu-Gyamfi, has jumped into the fray and accused the Mills-led government of deliberately seeking to weaken the Judiciary.

He stated that the Judiciary “traumatically passed through the valley of death” in the wake of Dr. Adjei' infamous statement.

Acknowledging the fact that the three arms of government; the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary are all headed by reputed Lawyers, Mr. Adu-Gyamfi stated “ THIS REGIME INDEED CAN BEST BE DESCRIBED AS ‘ THE GOLDEN AGE OF LAWYERS’ BUT THIS IS A REGIME WHICH HAS THREATENED AND PUT SO MUCH FEAR IN JUDGES IN THE DISCHARGE OF THEIR DUTIES”

“It is regretted that there is a deliberate and calculated attempt by the Executive to slight the Chief Justice in public and thereby erode the confidence people have in the Judiciary”, lamented Lawyer Adu-Gyamfi who is also a former Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC).

To illustrate the deliberate intentions of the Mills-led government to slight the Judiciary, the former GBA Boss stated, “the 2011 Budget showed a drastic cut in the estimates for the Judiciary in spite of the protection given to the Judiciary under the Constitution”

“This is the surest way of weakening and subtly undermining the independence of the Judiciary”, he asserted.

He further accused the Executive of courting the ‘sympathy’ of the Judges by offering some of them ‘juicy’ appointments.

“…THE ATTEMPT BY THE EXECUTIVE TO CREATE PATRONAGE IN THE JUDICIARY BY APPOINTING SERVING JUDGES ON PUBLIC BOARDS AND CORPORATIONS WHERE THE JUDICIARY , AS AN INSTITUTION, DOES NOT ALREADY HAVE REPRESENTATION, IS SEEN AS A DELIBERATE ATTEMPT AT UNDERMINING THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE JUDICIARY. WE DEMAND AN END TO THIS PRACTICE” he stated.

The Former GBA Boss poured his heart out when he presented a paper during the marking of the Law Week of the Ghana School of Law held at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) campus.

He also took a swipe at the Propaganda Secretary of the NDC, Richard Quarshigah for describing the Chief Justice, Mrs. Georgina Wood as a “dangerous woman with no shame”.

Delivering the paper on the topic “JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE AT THE CROSSROADS”, he recalled with nostalgia saying “Our commitment to the independence of the judiciary as enshrined in the constitution however, came under severe strain in August 2010 when Hon. Justice Marful-Sau, a Justice of the Appeal Court, sitting as an additional High Court judge, gave an interpretation of his understanding of the law and discharged Dr. Charles Wereko Brobby and Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani, the two accused persons in the Ghana@58 trial”.

“In a hurriedly organized press conference”, he continued, “Dr. Kwabena Adjei demanded that the Judiciary should ‘cleanse itself’ or else the NDC as a party would do so. When Dr. Adjei was asked about the modus operandi of the NDC in the cleansing exercise, he likened the Judiciary to the killing of a cat and asserted that there ‘are several ways of killing a cat”

The former GBA Boss used the occasion to appeal to President Mills to re-open investigations into the killing of the three Judges and an Army officer in 1982.

“As a covenant for further assurance , we humbly call upon His Excellency Prof. John Evans Atta Mills to order the re-opening of investigations into the abduction and murder of the Judges in June 1982 as he has done in the Ya-Na’s case because we believe that there is sufficient evidence on record to warrant such an exercise”, he appealed.

That exercise, he stated, “will assuage the fears of Judges against the activities of the ‘cat killers’ ”