If you provide skimpy evidence in court, it will be dismissed unanimously – Akufo-Addo tells SC critics

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is unhappy about the constant criticisms of the Supreme Court of being biased and politically inclined in its rulings.

According to him, such criticisms are geared towards disparaging the image of the apex court for “selfish parochial partisan reasons.”

“These are the plaintiffs who go to court, indeed the Highest

Read full articleCourt of the land, provide the skimpiest of evidence to back their claims and yet insist that their claims be upheld despite the elementary violation of the ancient common law rules for the discharge of the burden of proof that such a result would entail. It is no wonder that their claims were unanimously dismissed 7-0 by the apex court.

“The result of this case is indeed in sharp contrast to the result of a similar one in 2013 when the unsuccessful plaintiffs managed to persuade four out of a nine-member court to fight for them and yet the earlier plaintiffs chose not to wage a political war against the courts,” President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said while speaking at the 2022 Ghana Bar Association's Annual Conference in Ho, Monday, September 12.

President Akufo-Addo added that despite the comments against the Judiciary, “these attacks have not shaken the confidence of the people in these institutions.

“Genuine democrats should devote their energies to finding ways and means of strengthening the democratic institutions instead of spending profitless time in undermining them."

President Akufo-Addo's comment comes after a recent comment by former President John Dramani Mahama on how the court's image has been broken.

The former President John Dramani Mahama, on August 28, told NDC’s Lawyers’ Conference that it will take a new Chief Justice to repair the ‘broken image’ of the Judiciary.

According to him, the current leadership of the Judiciary lacks what it takes to redeem its sunken image, hence the need for a new Chief Justice.

“There is, therefore, the urgent need for the Ghanaian Judiciary to work to win the trust and confidence of the citizenry and erase the widely held perception of hostility and political bias in legal proceedings at the highest courts of the land.

“Unfortunately, we have no hope that the current leadership of our Judiciary can lead such a process of change.

“We can only hope, that a new Chief Justice will lead the process to repair the broken image that our Judiciary has acquired over the last few years,” Mahama said.

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