You’ve packed the courts to avoid accountability – Mahama to Akufo-Addo

Former President John Mahama has stated that President Akufo-Addo’s administration has packed the Ghanaian courts in order to avoid accountability when they leave office.

Addressing the closing session of the 3rd Lawyers Conference organized by NDC Lawyers Association at Akosombo in the Eastern region, Mr. Mahama disclosed that some of these lawyers President Akufo-Addo has leapfrogged on the bunch are known political persons.

“Our lawyers, some of you must be prepared to go unto the bunch, I know that some of you have very lucrative legal practices you will not want to leave and go unto the bunch. But you can see what the current President has done, he appointed the largest number of judges onto the bunch. More than 80 towards hundred and counting.

He’s packed the court and we know that they’ve packed the court because they want to avoid accountability after they have left office. So all manner of people who have been known to be partisan, to have been executives of their party who are in the legal profession have been leapfrogged onto the Superior courts and other places,” Mr. Mahama stated.

Former President Mahama has also recommended judicial reforms to restore absolute trust and confidence in Ghana’s judicial system.

He however hastened to add that the reforms must not be imposed by the Executive arm rather by collaboration with the judiciary.

Mr. Mahama averred that, the reform is necessary due to diminishing public trust in the judiciary which must be the backbone of democracy and rule of law in the country.

“All opinion polling and other surveys that have been done show that the reputation of our judiciary is at its lowest and we all know what has contributed to this. There have been low level off credibility with the judiciary. Our people have always felt that there is monetary influence that influence judgement in both civil and criminal case and you remember the Anas exposure that led to the sacking of some judges”.

According to the former President, the influence of the judiciary has metamorphosed to partisanship which has manifested in “bizarre” decisions on political related cases.

“But it has gone beyond monetary inducement. Now, it is also seen that the judiciary is partisan and a lot of people feel that justice is not served in many cases and we bear the brunt of that . You feel that the judiciary is partisan and in many cases, some of the decisions are quiet bizarre. We do believe that there must be judicial reform. Indeed when you interview most Ghanaians they believe that there must be some reform of the judiciary in order to bolster its reputation and make it an independent institution that, not only Ghanaians but foreign investors and any person who is in the jurisdiction of Ghana can trust”.

He continued “so this must be something the executive cannot impose on the judiciary but the judiciary and the executive working together can work to improve the stature of the judiciary”.

He charged the legal team of the opposition NDC to as part of the discussions have a look ” at how we as the executive and members of the judiciary can work together to improve the image of the Ghanaian judiciary. I believe that if the image of the judiciary is improved, it will inure to the benefit of those who work in the court, it inure to the benefit of the judges and judicial service workers.”