Is Justice Obiri Correct upstairs?

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

I don't know much about the judicial culture of Ghana, but if we are to go by the performance of Judge Francis Obiri, the Accra Circuit Court judge who sentenced 36-year-old Mr. Charles Antwi to 10 years' imprisonment for allegedly attempting to assassinate President John Dramani Mahama, then the country is in deep trouble (See "Gunman Was Not Crazy - Judge Fights Back" Citifmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 7/29/15). You see, when the prosecution involved in such a serious crime believes strongly that the accused may be mentally unsound to stand trial, but the non-specialist judge cavalierly brushes aside such well-founded misgiving on the dubious grounds that the accused exudes a demeanor of "confidence" and "charm" "while making his claims" and therefore is sane, then I strongly believe on the preceding count alone that maybe the judge deserves to be promptly dismissed from the bench and be recommended for psychiatric examination.

For starters, it is not clear to me precisely how the determination to try Mr. Antwi in an Accra circuit court, rather than a high court, for allegedly attempting to assassinate the President of Ghana, was made. Well, Chief Justice Theodora Wood was widely reported to have been in attendance at the Ringway Gospel Assemblies of God Church on July 26 when Mr. Antwi, wielding a home-made hand-gun entered the building. We are also informed that it was some of the personal detail, or body guards, of the Chief Justice that apprehended and escorted the gunman out of the chapel. And so, perhaps, it is quite safe to presume that Mrs. Wood had a thing or two to do with the prosecution of the case. Even more significant to highlight is the flagrantly capricious basis upon which Judge Obiri clearly appears to have determined the sanity of the accused.

Well, is Judge Obiri, for instance, implying that the exudation of confidence, whatever the latter terminology is supposed to mean, is the unique and especial preserve of the sane and sound? And also that, invariably, people clinically classified as mentally challenged lack a "confident demeanor"? Well, one can almost be certain that some form of psychology constituted a part of the legal training of Judge Obiri; but it is equally certain that the circuit court benchman is not a board-certified psychologist and/or psychiatrist. And so why did Judge Obiri flatly refuse to afford Mr. Antwi the civil, human and judicial right to be clinically examined by a specialist before determining whether the alleged gunman was fit to stand trial, for both the statutory crimes of illegally possessing an unregistered handgun and attempting to assassinate President Mahama, even upon the request by the prosecutors involved in the case?

There is absolutely no doubt that Judge Obiri must have been under a lot of pressure to nail the convicted gunman, especially the imperative need not to be perceived by Mahama fanatics and hangers-on to be too clinical and professional with the case. Nonetheless, it was equally imperative for Judge Obiri to uphold the highest ethical standards in his handling of this first-class case of felony. You see, the test of Mr. Antwi's sanity rested far less on the surface details of what the accused intended to do, than whether the end-result for doing what he intended to do was practically achievable or sensible to the hearing and/or understanding of a normal human adult.

The accused stated rather incoherently that he wanted to kill President Mahama and assume the presidency himself, without readily recognizing the very elementary fact that if he succeeded in killing the president wthout also taking over the entire governance apparatus, it would be Vice-President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur who would end up being constitutionally declared President of Ghana, and not Mr. Charles Antwi, the one-man battalion of the Dadiesoaba home-made artillery division of the Ghana Armed Forces. As well, the fact even if he succeeded in liquidating Mr. Mahama, or carrying out his patently morbid and deadly objective, the gunman would likely be executed right on the spot.

It is for the preceding observations that I am of the firm conviction that the scandalous sentencing of Mr. Antwi to 10 years' imprisonment ought to be promptly declared a mistrial. Judge Obiri must be assigned cases requiring the barest minimum of logic and moral depth of appreciation. Personally, I believe that the country's judicial system will be better served by having judges like Mr. Obiri resign their posts, retire with full pension benefits, or be reassigned to purely clerical and administrative duties. An injustice one too many, were the dear reader to ask me.

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