The all-knowing Editor-In-Chief of the New Crusading Guide, Kweku Baako Jnr, has described retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Francis Yaonasu Kpegah, as �a Rambo on rampage fighting the whole world�, suggesting the learned Supreme Court Judge was mentally imbalance.
The former Justice of the Supreme Court earlier this week, specifically accused Chief Justice, Georgina Wood, the General Legal Council and the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), for conspiring to frustrate him in his case against the 2012 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo.
Justice Kpegah, in a press statement last week said, in an attempt to have him (Kpegah) embarrassed, the Chief Justice specifically selected a female High Court judge, who is closer to him and Vice-President Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, to sit on the case against Nana Addo, to have her blackmailed should she rule against the NPP guru.
Justice Kpegah said tradition over the years had been to place the Judiciary above criticism, but these days some unscrupulous rogues have been allowed to sell Justice like tomatoes in the market.
He warned �If anybody attempts to rubbish these claims I will expose things that will shock the Ghanaian public to the very marrow�.
�I hope they will maintain the independence required by the ethics of our profession. They should not push me to the wall to make a number of damning revelations that will haunt them for the rest of their lives.
�Let me also caution those in the Judicial set up who have resorted to using acts of intimidation such as transfer out of Accra and promotion to cow Judges into deciding cases in their favour. At the premises of the courts there is an inscription that �JUSTICE IS NOT FOR SALE�, however, what obtains in our Justice system today is that �JUSTICE IS FOR SALE� to the highest bidder,� he said.
But without speaking to the issues raised by the highly respected retired Supreme Court Justice, Mr. Baako went into town claiming there was more to Kpegah�s crusade than it meets the eye.
This, he attributed to three reasons � a salary advance that was denied him, Tsatsu�s incarceration and a third � his suspicion that the retired judge was not authoring the pieces himself.
He reiterated his comments in the past that there was tangible animosity towards the Chief Justice, Georgina Wood.
The judge has described her as �intransigent� and was with the support of �faceless� politicians �growing feathers�.
The Managing editor said, Justice Kpegah has a feud with the Chief Justice because she denied his request for a salary advance.
The retired judge�s suit against the Chief Justice in 2010 was as a result of Justice Georgina Wood�s action against him.
�It was all about him seeking salary advance from the Judicial Service�, Mr. Baako revealed.
He said the Chief Justice declined his request on the basis that he was on retirement. It was, therefore, the role of the Controller and Accountant- General to handle his request, he added.
�This is basic�, he mentioned.
According to Kweku Baako �Kpegah appears to have a problem with the sentencing of Tsatsu Tsikata�.
On June 18, 2008, Mr Tsikata was found guilty and sentenced to five years� imprisonment on three counts of willfully causing financial loss to the state which ran concurrently.
He was pardoned in December 2008 by former President John Agyekum Kufuor.
Mr. Baako said in 2008, the retired judge called for an emergency meeting, and wrote letters to the Chief Justice accusing the Judiciary of the incarceration of Tsikata.
The managing editor went further.
�He may not be the one authoring these pieces�, he suspected. He referred to the frail frame of the retired judge when he had to be helped into his car after appearing in court.
The judge had also been absent in court citing ill-health.
The anger by the Judge exhibited towards the �whole world� showed that the he was a �marauding Rambo on rampage�, and the �only standing Blowman�, a self-restrained Kweku Baako said.
The conduct of the retired judge, he said made him a �terrible statesman�.
The ex-Acting Chief Justice�s case is that Nana Addo, might be a qualified lawyer in the UK, but not qualified to practice law in Ghana, because he did not go through the statutory six months post-call studies at the Ghana School of Law, where he would studied Ghana�s Constitutional law, Land Law, Customary Law among others.
Justice Kpegah also insists that Nana Akufo-Addo was born �William Akufo-Addo� and that his addition of the name �Nana� without going through the legal rudiments of name change, makes him unrecognized, adding Nana Addo spells his name �Akufo� differently from that of his father, an ex-Chief Justice Edward Akuffo Addo, a onetime ceremonial president of Ghana.
He also pointed at contradictions in the addresses Nana Addo submitted as his place of residence at the time of his qualification as a lawyer, adding it is also unclear whether Nana Addo read Arts or Economics at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Below is the full press statement signed by Justice Kpegah;
It is becoming apparent that the General Legal Council, the Judiciary and the Ghana Bar Association are hell bent on defending Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in the suit I instituted against him at the Fast Track Division of the High Court. The General Legal Council is obviously not willing to expose the Defendant, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as not being on the Roll of Lawyers. This is because it will strike at the very heart of the integrity of the Council. To this end, the Council is ready to sacrifice principle and the very ethics which underpin the Legal Profession for the sake of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. The Legal fraternity is fast losing its long cherished tag of being a �noble� profession.
Let me state that this action has been instituted by me not out of malice or personal dislike for the Defendant, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. This action is borne out of a genuine desire to act as one of the very few surviving gate keepers of the Legal fraternity.
For the record, the Defendant, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo Never filed a defence to my statement of claim. He simply had no defence to the fact that he was never duly called to the Ghana Bar. He however, filed an application to strike out the action as frivolous, vexatious, an abuse of the process and disclosing no reasonable cause of action.
That application however, is misconceived in law and the presiding Judge got it entirely wrong in her ruling that the writ did not disclose a reasonable cause of action since it failed to establish that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was impersonating W.A.D akufo-Addo who is number 1190 on the Roll of Lawyers in Ghana. With the utmost respect to the trial Judge, that issue should have been reserved for trial, where the burden of proof would have been on me, the plaintiff to prove.
On the 23rd of April 2013, I was unable to attend court due to ill health but I gave firm instructions to my Counsel to seek an adjournment and this was duly granted by the trial Judge. It therefore came as a shock when on the adjourned date of 2nd May 2013, the presiding Judge sought to give a ruling, when we were going to raise a preliminary objection and move our affidavit in opposition to the striking out of the instant action.
At the first hearing of the application, my lawyer (David Djentuh) was subjected to physical and verbal abuse by members of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo�s legal team who numbered about twenty.
His bodyguards also filled the court room to further intimidate my counsel. My Lawyer was rudely shouted down and insulted in open court while the presiding Judge failed to reprimand them. Indeed, the Court room was reduced to a �gangland� where Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his legal team called the shots. His bodyguards came into the Courtroom with pistols. Why will a man who claims to believe in the rule of law live the life of a gangster?
Why will any decent person be coming into a Court of Law with �macho men� wielding pistols? This was a veritable ground for being in contempt of court.
My information however, is that Her Ladyship the Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood is neck deep in the dismissal of my case by the Fast Track High Court. She personally instructed that my case against Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo- Addo be dismissed.
The Supreme Court recently upheld the case of Mr. Bernard Monarh and declared certain portions of CI 74 as null and void and in clear contravention of the 1992 constitution. The blame however, should fall squarely on Her Ladyship the Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood because she is the chairperson of the Rules of Court Committee which drafted CI 74 per article 157 of the 1992 constitution.
How can a Chief Justice who swore to uphold and defend the Constitution at �all times� supervise the Rules of Court Committee to draft a constitutional instrument (CI 74) which is in clear violation of the provisions of the 1992 constitution, which is the supreme law of the land.
I have known the presiding Judge, Justice Mrs Cecilia Sowah as a fair and firm Judge.
A day before the dismissal of my case by Justice Mrs. Cecilia Sowah, Lawyer Ebow Dawson a loud mouth New Patriotic Party member was openly boasting in a cape coast drinking spot that my case against Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo would be dismissed. He stated emphatically, that �they� had pre-arranged with Her Ladyship the Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood to put Justice Mrs Cecilia Sowah on my case so they can expose her relationship with the Vice President, Amissah Arthur.
It is an open secret that the presiding Judge, Justice Mrs Cecilia Sowah is a sibling of His Excellency the Vice President. The Chief Justice, Her Ladyship Georgina Theodora Wood thus colluded with the Defendant, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his agents in order to set up this innocent Judge and thereby create the impression that the ruling government is behind this suit.
The plan was that, the Party youth would embark on a violent demonstration against the government and the case would subsequently be made to die a natural death. This plan was well orchestrated for civil society to ask that in the face of the violent demonstrations, the case should not be made to proceed.
Besides, the Chief Justice is well aware of the good relationship I have always had with Justice Mrs Cecilia Sowah and therefore she deliberately put her on my case as a potential set up. This set up was staged so that should the ruling go my way, the paid agents and assigns of the Defendant, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will then go on a wild media propaganda that I was very close to this Honourable Judge during my days as a Judge in Cape Coast. They had also lined up a number of paid agents and assigns as witnesses to come and testify to it.
I am glad that this grand scheme against me, the government and the presiding Judge by the Chief Justice, Her Ladyship Georgina Theodora Wood has failed miserably.
I must sound a word of caution to the General Legal Council, the Judiciary and the Ghana Bar Association never to conspire to frustrate me in this matter.
I hope they will maintain the independence required by the ethics of our Profession.They should not push me to the wall to make a number of damning revelations that will haunt them for the rest of their lives.
Let me also caution those in the Judicial set up who have resorted to using acts of intimidation such as transfer out of Accra and promotion to cow Judges into deciding cases in their favour.
At the premises of the courts there is an inscription that �Justice Is Not For Sale�, however what obtains in our Justice system today is that �Justice Is For Sale� to the highest bidder.
The tradition over the years has been to place the Judiciary above criticism and thus allow some unscrupulous rogues to sell Justice like tomatoes in the market.
If anybody attempts to rubbish these claims I will expose things that will shock the Ghanaian public to the very marrow.
The attempt by the Defendant, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to prove that he was duly called to the Ghana Bar using the mass media will never wash with me. He must file a defence to my action to show in law that he was indeed properly called to the Bar in Ghana. The Application by the Defendant to strike out my action is an interlocutory matter and does not deal with the merits of my case.
I have therefore instructed my lawyer to file a fresh writ against the Defendant, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Even though, I reserve the unfettered right to Appeal against the ruling of the Fast Track High Court in dismissing my action, I am verily informed and verily believe same to be true that there is a giant scheme in place to frustrate the appeal process.
I was ashamed to hear Lawyer Godfred Dame say on air that the matter has been finally determined and that is the end of the case. Clearly, he does not know the difference between an interlocutory ruling and a final Judgment. My advice to him is that he should dust his civil procedure notes and burn the mid night candle like some of us did.
The attempt by the statesman and the Daily Guide newspapers to misrepresent a photograph of the Defendant, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo with a group of other lawyers as his year group is indeed laughable and clearly shows the extent to which these pro New Patriotic Party Newspapers will go to defend their �darling boy�.
To further make it more bizarre, one of the lawyers in the picture was identified as Lawyer Tsatsu Tsikata. This is a blatant lie because the identified person is in fact Lawyer Nutifafa Kuenyehia. Why is Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo resorting to lies and deceit in the media if he has nothing to hide? It is clear that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo knows he was never duly called to the Ghana Bar and is using the media to kill the case before it goes to trial.
For the record, the said photograph was never the class of 1975 as portrayed by these two Newspapers who have obviously been engaged in gutter journalism and have thrown all ethics in Journalism to the dogs.
The said photograph was taken after a meeting of the members of the General Legal Council at the time.
I can never win my case on the media but I will definitely win my case in the law courts.
Over the years, principles have been sacrificed and rules have been bent in favour of a select few. Why are the rules always different for a certain category of people in this country? Are they more human than the rest of us? Why do people like, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo always get preferential treatment.
Why are the rules not applied uniformly to all persons irrespective of class, ethnic origin and background?
How can Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo openly admit to the world that he has lost both his Enrolment and Qualifying Certificates but took no steps to obtain duplicates while in active practice without the General Legal Council instituting a preliminary investigation of same?
It was only after I had sued him that he found it expedient to obtain a letter from the General Legal Council confirming him as having been called to the Ghana Bar and signed by the then Acting Administrative Secretary to the General Legal Council.
That the Defendant, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is aware or ought to be aware that not even the Chairman of the General Legal Council acting alone or in collaboration with the Secretary to the Council can take such a Unilateral decision to write a letter confirming him as having been enrolled and duly called to the Ghana Bar at a meeting of the General Legal Council held at the Supreme Court, Supreme Court Building on Tuesday, 8th July, 1975.
The complicity of the Ghana Bar Association in trying to protect Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is there for all to see.
To start with Lawyer Frank Davies whose law firm entered appearance for and on behalf of, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is the chairman of the Accra Regional Branch of the Ghana Bar Association. How can such a person who should be interested that professional standards are not compromised at the Bar, be the lawyer for Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
it is always easy for people to condemn me as old and senile instead of interrogating the issues i have raised which are indeed Germaine to our very existence as a nation.
The thriller in Manila is still on and I am determined to see it to its logical conclusion. The world will one day remember me as an upright man who against all odds maintained that professional ethics should not be sacrificed for the convenience of one man.
If this case was against an ordinary lawyer, would this have been the attitude of the General Legal Council, the Chief Justice, the Judiciary and the Ghana Bar Association.
Yours in the service of Ghana
Justice F.Y. Kpegah
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