It calls for a national reflection or conversation when the leader of the Minority in Parliament, a lawyer expresses publicly, misgivings about a judge’s performance in a politically-inclined case.
Alexander Afenyo-Markin’s expressions during the press conference at the NPP headquarters about the decision of the judge at Circuit Court 9 to remand the Bono Regional Chairman of the opposition party until the final determination of the case has exposed the fault-lines in the John Mahama reset judicial system.
A good judicial system must be one which commands respect and confidence of those it is meant to serve and that is the people of Ghana. When there are doubts in the minds of the aggrieved that they might not get justice because judges sitting on their cases would not speak law but adjudicate based on external influences then there is a problem.
There is a problem when a presidential candidate upon being elected into office embarks upon a so-called project in his own words ‘resetting the judiciary’ especially when this comes against the backdrop of his earlier contemptuous description of the Supreme Court as a ‘unanimous 7 SC’. He was not cited for contempt when he vented the opinion.
The position of the Minority Leader, daring as it sounded unfortunately mirrors the impression most Ghanaians have about some judges in the country and it does not inure to the interest of the rule of law.
We wish the foregone was not the case and those turning up in courts especially in political-cases can be rest assured that justice would be served them and not something else.
We cannot accept a situation where some judges are accused of not speaking the law as the Leader implied in his press conference presentation. Judges should exude respect and their ability to dispense justice without political coloration should not be in doubt.
We have been launched into a sphere where some cases are directed to specific persons because of expected outcomes. That is the thinking of many Ghanaians today and it speaks negatively about the state of justice administration under a so-called reset agenda of President John Mahama.
What informed the decision of the Chief Justice to take charge of which cases go where and the like? Is it part of the reset agenda?
The Minority Leader of Parliament in a democracy is no mean a person whose words should be dismissed as balderdash.
As a people interested in seeing the progress of our country in all spheres we should interrogate the concerns raised by the Leader. Is justice being served when the judge in the Abronye case decided that he be remanded until the final determination of the case? Is the decision grounded in law and does it not constitute an overreach?
Did the judge serve justice or silence as the Minority Leader alluded to in his presentation about the case under review?
Let us get talking as Ghanaians because a justice system which exudes respect and confidence inures to good governance. Something is wrong which is what the Minority Leader is speaking about.
