Posted: Daily Guide |Friday, 20 August 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) has dared the National Chairman of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Kwabena Adjei, to go ahead with his threat and that of his party to ‘clean’ the judiciary.
Should he make any such attempt, the group says they are more than ready to stop him in his tracks, right at the doorstep of his home.
Their position comes in the wake of the NDC chairman’s accusation of the country’s judiciary as being biased against the ruling government; he subsequently indicated government’s preparedness to ‘clean it’ if need be.
The pressure group believes his comments are not only unsavoury but also reckless and a calculated attempt to intimidate and instil fear in the judiciary.
At a press conference in Accra yesterday, Spokesman for AFAG, Martin Adjei Mensah Akorsah, reminded the NDC chairman that the independence of Ghana was founded on mass action, adding that they hold the country’s motto, ‘freedom and justice’, in high esteem and will therefore “not allow the course of justice to succumb to the whims and caprices of the cleaners.”
They could not fathom why Dr Kwabena Adjei, and for that matter the NDC, thinks the judiciary has tilted against them, emphasizing that “it was in the hands of these same purported ‘NPP judges’ on the Bench that the NPP-led government suffered a major legal defeat that led to the exoneration of NDC gurus such as Nana Ato Dadzie, Sherry Ayittey, Kwasi Ahwoi and Dr. Dapaah during their trial.”
The group said it was one of these so-called NPP judges who recently ruled against CHRAJ on the Mabey and Johnson trial involving former and current government officials, therefore wondering why “the NDC did not find anything wrong with this because its members were involved and probably they believed the dispensation of justice should only favour them.”
Be that as it may, AFAG says it will be shocked if President Mills, and for that matter government, did not call Dr Adjei to order and distance themselves from a “provocative and useless statement.”
AFAG believes that as a person who attends cabinet meetings and a one time Member of Parliament, Dr Kwabena Adjei should be in a better position to demonstrate his profound respect for the rule of law and provide such inspirational leadership worthy of emulation.
They noted that Dr Adjei, aka ‘Wayoo Wayo’, “has only succeeded in demonstrating to the whole world that he is inept, desperate and for that matter all the allegations of corruption hurled at members of the NPP Government during the 2008 presidential elections were politically motivated and lacked merit.”
AFAG is of the conviction that Dr. Adjei and the NDC are only seeking favour and bent on changing the Chief Justice in order for their government to have the opportunity to appoint a person that they can manipulate and also politicise the judiciary.
“We shall however hold Dr. Kwabena Adjei and his NDC accountable to any attempt on the life of a Judge in whichever form, as he explores his several ways in killing a cat,” the group emphasised.
They have therefore asked her lordship, the Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood and her colleague members of the bench to remain steadfast and not be shaken by these threats, saying “we urge her to be strong and keep flying high like an eagle as she remains a model of hope for the Ghanaian woman.”
Flanked by high-ranking members of AFAG including its chairman, Dr Nana Ayew Afriyie, James Apietu Ankrah and a host of others, Mr Akorsah said if the CJ bowed to “these baseless pressures”, she would only succeed in putting in the public domain how much women in public places cannot withstand “the nuisance of some failing politicians and their displaced aggressions.”
He recalled how three high court judges were murdered during the PNDC era in 1982 as a result of “such similar senseless sentiments made against the judiciary where Dr. Kwabena Adjei as militant as he was, was the Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry.”
AFAG expressed hope that the P (NDC) will depart from “its hostile and oppressive circumstances that cowed judges into submission under the totalitarian, autocratic and suppressive rule of the PNDC that gave birth to this NDC.”