Critics Of My SC Verdict Analysis Are �Ignorant� � Okudzeto

A former President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Mr. Sam Okudzeto, has described those criticising his analysis of the Supreme Court verdict on the election petition trial, as �ignorant� people.

��If anybody is [picking] a fight with me, it is because the person is ignorant and I think we Ghanaians should learn now to begin to learn, instead of using sentiments. Sentiments don�t help anybody� he told Radio XYZ�s news magazine programme STRICT PROOF on Friday.

Mr. Okudzeto, in an interview with XYZ News on Thursday September 26, 2013, accused the presiding judge of the nine-member Supreme Court panel that heard the case, Justice William Atuguba, of �misreading" the judgment of his other colleague Justices.

According to Sam Okudzeto, his own analysis of the 588 pages of the judgment shows the decision went 5-4 in favour of the petitioners.

He, therefore, wondered why the Court ruled in favour of the respondents and validated President John Mahama�s election.

Mr. Okudzeto said he believes the Presiding Judge, Justice William Atuguba, gave a �wrong� analysis of the judgment.

Retired Military Captain, Joel Sowu, his harshest critic, described Mr. Okudzeto�s analysis as wrongly-timed and imprudent.

According to Captain Sowu, ��with his age, I thought that prudence should have played a part for him to decide whether to say what he�s saying at this point in time or not�.

�If you say the right thing at the wrong time, it is wrong; if you say the wrong thing at the right time; it is wrong and I think the timing is completely overboard and it is uncalled for and it must be condemned by right thinking people who want peace in this country�, he stressed.

He wondered why Mr. Okudzeto made those comments despite the fact that: �The petitioner himself has said �I will abide by the thing��.

��So who are you now to start critiquing and rubbishing the judgment of the Supreme Court?�

��We are all saying that the word �Supreme� means �something or nothing�, and he, as a former President of the Bar Association, seriously, I�m disappointed in him�, he thundered exasperatingly.

Mr. Okudzeto however retorted that: �That is the level of their ignorance; that because the Supreme Court has pronounced judgment therefore, we as academicians should not analyze it?�

�If they are doing that then they are ignorant and this is what they need to be educated upon�I was doing a critique of the judgment; I�m entitled to do; in fact which I�m obligated to do. They should learn now and begin to learn because it is the sentiment that creates the tension in the country. It is not the analysis�.

Source: Radioxyzonline.com