A More Constructive Suggestion, Justice Short

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
Dec. 22, 2015
E-mail: [email protected]

The decision by Chief Justice Theodora Georgina Wood to dismiss some twenty judges allegedly caught on video- and audiotape soliciting bribes in order to rule in favor of well-heeled criminal suspects is only the first step towards the process of social justice. The other equally significant component of the disciplinary process must entail a thoroughgoing review of all cases adjudicated by the judges and magistrates caught in the meticulous investigative dragnet of Mr. Anas Aremeyaw Anas and his Tiger-Eye PI network over the course of some two years. Because, really, the actual victims here are the poor citizens who had their cases criminally decided in favor of those who ought to have been taken off our streets and penned up for a considerable amount of penal time.

And this is the reason why I do not think that Justice Emile Short’s call for the Attorney-General, Mrs. Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, to initiate criminal proceedings against the dismissed judges and magistrates goes far enough (See “Prosecute Sacked Corrupt Judges – Short” Starrfmonline.com / Modernghana.com 12/8/15). What the Attorney-General, as well as the Chief Justice, needs to do right now is to open an enquiry into all the dockets brought before the courtrooms of these judges and magistrates in order to more objectively determine the extent of the level of judicial travesty perpetrated by the culprits. It is only upon this basis that any justifiable or fair criminal proceedings could be initiated against the judges and magistrates involved.

The same method of forensic scrutiny ought to be applied to the cases of the over 130 judicial service staffers being currently investigated by the panel of judicial experts charged with the same. But even more significantly, as in the case of the judgment-debt regime, the Government must be prepared to compensate citizens who were callously and criminally railroaded by these rogue judges and magistrates. The lawyers who smugly participated in this abominable act must also be investigated and promptly brought to book. I must also quickly point out that the reference to the veritable highway robbery that is the judgment-debt racket is absolutely in no way a statement of endorsement. Rather, it is only meant to underscore the fact that those who have been unconscionably railroaded by the Ajet-Nassams of the bench are more legitimately deserving of such compensation which, by the way, could in absolutely no way be equated with restitution.

What we are talking about here may be aptly described as a token recognition of the undeserved injury inflicted on these people by jurists employed by the State/Government and paid for their services by the Ghanaian taxpayer. In other words, to the extent that the 34 judges and magistrates caught on tape and camera might have been poorly supervised, thus the shameless boldness with which they indulged in these corrupt practices, logically makes the Government responsible for such acts of criminality of the highest order.

Indeed, Chief Justice Wood may herself have to answer for her stewardship. For we cannot naively pretend that the sort and level of judicial corruption documented by the Tiger-Eye PI network just occurred overnight. It clearly appears to have been incubated and hatched over a long period of time, perhaps even well before Chief Justice Wood assumed reins of the judicial service. But the fact also holds that the Chief Justice has been in office long enough to have significantly and positively impacted the quality of judicial practice in the country.

And so really, contrary to what Justice Short would have the rest of us and the world believe, the most effective way of tackling the problem goes far, far beyond merely prosecuting the dismissed judges and magistrates. It is systemic and ought to be envisaged and treated as such.

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