Your comments about judiciary unwarranted, unjustified - Godfred Dame slams John Mahama

The Attorney General has expressed disappointment over comments by former president John Dramani Mahama about the judiciary being politically biased.

According to him, the unjustified, unwarranted comments by John Mahama undermines the independence of the judiciary.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Ghana Bar Annual Conference in Ho,

Read full articletarget='_blank' href='/GhanaHomePage/people/person.php?ID=5188'>Godfred Dame slammed the former president over what he said were unwarranted comments.

“Mr. president the judiciary has shown consistently that it is the last line of defense for our country and was thus with great dismay and embracement that I heard a person who has occupied the highest office of the state, former president John Mahama recently launched an unwarranted attack on the integrity of Ghana’s judiciary and observed that this is the latest instalments of systematic attacks on our courts by the former president all of it unjustified and I compelled to comment on same in the address because they border on the security of the state and constitute a deliberate pattern of conduct aimed at undermining the independence of the judiciary, aims of government whose autonomy is crucial to its proper functioning.

The Attorney-General however maintained that the issues he is addressing have nothing to do with the individual; John Dramani Mahama, but the comments made by the same.

“It is important for all to note that I express this sentiment not because I stand in opposition to former president john Mahama as a politician. My dismay is funded more on the fact that I’m a lawyer and every lawyer ought to be concerned about these kinds of views expressed by a political leader in this country,” he said.

Background

On August 29, John Dramani Mahama, former president and 2020 flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) cautioned against a rife perception of the Judiciary being politically biased.

He held that there is an urgent need for the judiciary - especially the apex court - to work towards instilling confidence in its output and by so doing save the country's democracy.

Mahama told a gathering of NDC lawyers at a conference in Ada that a judiciary needed to be trusted by the public at all times because such trust had wide-ranging implications on the security of the state.

“So badly has the image of our Judiciary deteriorated, that many of our citizenry openly make mockery of our justice system and of our justices. The phrase ‘Go to Court’ is these days met with derisive laughter, instead of hope that one will truly get justice.

“If people are not poking fun about politics and inducements being used to sway the hand of justice in the lower courts, then it is poking fun and making statements about the 7-0 of the ‘Unanimous FC’“ he added.

'Unanimous FC' is in a terminology that is associated with Supreme Court rulings especially when justices of the court deliver a full bench dismissal of political cases before them - a case in point being the 2020 election petition.

Mahama stressed that such perception and derision of the apex courts, is, “an unfortunate development. One of the scariest existential threat to any democracy is when citizens think their judiciary holds no value for them,” he added.

NYA/WA