Opinion
Bravo, Anas Aremeyaw Anas. If Ghana had ten dedicated, selfless, dynamic and honest journalists like Anas, the country would be far better a place to live in than it is currently the situation.
Corruption as masterminded and spearheaded by those in responsible positions, who otherwise are to oversee its riddance from society, is the bane of Ghana.
The socio-economic retrogression of Ghana is all down to the uncontrollable ramifications of corruption in perpetration by both our public and traditional leaders.
This is made worse by a greater number of irresponsible persons in all the three arms of government; the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary.
It becomes more serious when the guardians of the law, those charged with the responsibility to enforce the observance of the laws and are vested with power to punish culprits, according as may be laid down by the law, are themselves found actively involved in committing crimes or breaching the very laws they are to safeguard. This is what the Ghana judiciary is perceived by the public to be doing. This public perception has been confirmed to be absolutely true by the meticulous investigations secretly conducted by ace investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
I shall only call for the prosecution of the judges found to have demanded or accepted bribes in their various forms and shapes; be they goats, cats, money or cars. They should have known better. They take the bribes to twist justice. They always accept bribes from the party in litigation matters that by all evidence and facts submitted and, or adduced in court, should have been found guilty, but are in the end declared victorious due to the offered financial inducement.
They trade justice for money but not justice for justice. Such judges are always not fair in their declaration of verdicts pronounced on court cases they preside over. They listen to their stomach and heart but not their head. They do not respect the ethics of their law profession hence the deplorably lawless state in which we find our dear country, Ghana, in today, where nothing works, but things falling apart and the centre unable to hold.
If all, or most, Ghanaian judges, were honest with themselves and fair to all, Ghana will not be in such difficult straits that armed robbers abound; those in government embezzling funds with Alfred Agbesi Woyome swindling Ghana of GHc 51.2 million and still sauntering through the streets with puffed chest.
Prosecute the exposed corrupt judges and any of them found guilty must be punished accordingly to serve as deterrence to other would-be scandalously corrupt judges. Let Ghanaians have no mercy on them as they had no compassion on the poor people whom they denied them justice. Had it not been these corrupt judges, the current crop of corrupt, naive and clueless lots would not be in government to greedily deplete the coffers of Ghana through their "create, loot and share" cum ridiculous appointments to higher positions reflective of tribal animosities, inferiority complexes and quest for hollow tribal supremacy of some sort.
It is very good that Justice Michael Boamah Gyamfi has been exposed as one of the established corrupt judges in Ghana. Once, a case of land issue (Kumasi plot) was brought before him. A certain man who was sold the plot and was in possession of all the necessary documents was challenged by another person claiming ownership of the land. After thorough examinations of the evidential documents, and deliberations, the judge decided the case fairly. The real owner, the one with evidential documents, was pronounced the victor.
However in less than no time, on appeal to the same judge, Justice Michael Boamah Gyamfi, the son of Asante Edffiduase soil, although without fresh evidence from the already declared guilty party, he changed his mind and ruled in favour of the previously pronounced guilty party.
How could this happen? It was later learnt that the person had secretly gone to grease his palms. Today, what they heard has been proved right by Anas' investigations into his conduct that confirm his corrupt nature. He is no longer a credible judge as some people may have otherwise thought.
All the corrupt judges ruining Ghana; those accepting bribes with those merely showing their power of "can make or break" to prove that what they say goes, must be severely punished. Once they are mercilessly dealt with, it will serve a great lesson able to change Ghana for the better, to all and sundry.
We want our judges to be fair, basing their verdict on the availability of credible evidence and facts, but not on how best one can influence them with money.
Please readers, refer to the underlying link to familiarise yourselves with an open letter I published to Chief Justice Mrs Georgina Theodora Wood on Thursday 23 July 2015.
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/An-Open-Letter-to-the-Chief-Justice-Mrs-Georgina-Theodora-Wood-370165
Once more, I proudly say, more grease to your elbows, Mr Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
Rockson Adofo
