Yaw Acheampong Boafo, President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), has cautioned the public, especially politicians, against the colouration of the Judiciary.
He has asked the public to put an end to the tagging of judges as belonging to one political party or the other.
According to the GBA President, there is no appointment on the Judiciary that demands the political affiliation of a judge as a requirement, asking the public to put an end to the “NPP judge, NDC judge” pronunciations in the country.
His caution comes on the back of comments being made by some people in connection with some high-profile court cases.
Mr. Boafo was speaking at the remembrance service for the Martyrs of the Rule of Law, held at the Cavalry Baptist Church in Accra Sunday, June 30, 2024, when he bemoaned the framing of judges in political lenses which is becoming the order of the day.
“We must spare the judiciary our divisive partisanship. It is sad that public commentary relative to cases of public interest pending in court has taken on political colouration,” he stated.
“There is no training module at the judicial training school known as NPP judge, NDC judge, CPP judge for anyone to tag a judge as NPP, NDC, and CPP. There is only one judiciary established in Chapter 11 of the 1992 Constitution,” he added.
Reemphasizing a statement he made at the 2023 Annual General Conference of the Ghana Bar Association, the GBA President noted that the operations of the judiciary is independent of political affiliations.
“I want to place on record that at no stage of the interview and evaluation courses of an appointment to any level of the judiciary is the political affiliation or leanings of an applicant a requirement.”
The remembrance service honoured the sacrifices of the three judges who were killed in 1982 for defending the rule of law.
Mr Boafo, therefore, urged individuals who assign political colours to judges to desist from the act in order not to “lead to the martyrdom of any judge.”
Meanwhile, a section of the public have recently, blasted the GBA for its failure to comment of the actions of the Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, regarding his conduct on the ongoing ambulance purchase trial.
The A-G has been accused of trying to influence the third accused in the trial, Richard Jakpa, to testify falsely against the first accused, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson. An evidence relating to the accusations have been admitted by the court, where the judge advised Mr. Dame to recuse himself from the matter but has refused.
This, is part of the issues the GBA has been accused of failing to comment on, whilst being loud on matters which many believe do not really fall within its remit.
Dame-Jakpa saga: GBA should have issued a statement by now – Prof. Appiagyei-Atua
