Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide, Kweku Baako has slammed the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) over their press conference on Chief Justice, Anin-Yeboah's petition against Dr. Dominic Yeboah, Bolgatanga East MP and a former Attorney General.
The CJ has dragged Dr. Dominic Ayine before the General Legal Council, the regulatory body of the legal profession in Ghana, claiming the latter has made some scandalous statements against the Judiciary.
Dr. Ayine is accused of undermining the independence of the Judiciary during a public forum organized by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD).
“His Lordship the Chief Justice therefore finds his alleged disparaging comments totally unacceptable and would like you to investigate the matter,” the CJ stated in his petition.
But Dr. Ayine has refuted the claims saying “as I have stated in this response, as a lawyer, I have a special responsibility to engage in criticism of the work of the judiciary. By reason of my training and experience, I am better placed than most of my fellow citizens to point out deficiencies in judgments and in the performance by the judiciary of its core constitutional mandate".
The NDC has admonished the CJ to withdraw his petition.
According to the party's General Secretary, the NDC supports Dr. Ayine insisting he didn't “violate any rule or professional conduct rules for lawyers…Neither Dr Ayine, nor we in the NDC can be compelled to increase our confidence in the independence of the Judiciary even when the Court has not given us any basis or reason to do so”.
He accused the CJ of suprevising a ''judiciary tyranny'' aimed at gagging lawyers of the NDC.
But to Kweku Baako, nobody is intimidating NDC lawyers.
''...we are now being told by their party that these lawyers affiliated to them appear to have been singled out and are being intimidated into submission of some sort. Now, these lawyers, they're lawyers; not people like us. They go before the Committee, a Committee which is part of their own profession, all this thing is captured in the Legal Professional Conduct And Etiquette Rules 2020 (LI 24/23)...They submit themselves to this; I don't know maybe at a gunpoint and yet we have their party...there soliciting some sympathy...on their behalf that they're being intimidated'', he stated, asking ''don't they have their own senses? Aren't they trained minds? Aren't they learned people? Aren't they members of the learned profession? When they go to the Committee, what animal is that Committee?''
He stressed; ''The political intrusion by the NDC was needless and it distorts and pollutes the environment.''
To him, the NDC is behaving like an ''unchained octopus on rampage''.
''Telling us that they're threatening us (their lawyers). They're intimidating us. They're persecuting. They're forcing a culture of silence on us and so we need your help. I'm not prepared to agree to that'', he stressed.
He spoke on Peace FM's morning show ''Kokrokoo''.
Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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K. B. I think you have lost your credibility. Do you have to condemn everything NDC does? If a whole party can't fight for its members, who are you, a single person tell the party how to behave towards its members, be they lawyers or cleaners?
The NDC should discard the attitude of always blaming others for their incompetence. The politic of deceit and propaganda, if overstressed, tends to be counterproductive. I'm a Ghanaian diasporan living abroad and become very proud when colleagues, non-Ghanaians, single Ghana out and praise Ghana for initiating good policies. The opposition party NDC portrays the Government and its policies as abysmal but fails to provide what they would have done better. Theirs is only to make the Government look bad so that it would be voted out. I hold the opinion that the opposition party should rather present itself as a potentially better alternative Government with better policies. Unfortunately, NDC had failed abysmally to live up to the task of presenting informed and constructive criticisms. Such that, I doubt if the NDC has the competence to provide that alternative. Apparently, the NPP seems to have developed an indifferent attitude towards the deficiency of the NDC and is determined to prove them wrong. Thus making, with time, the cynical posture of the NDC counterproductive. Hence, NDC should stop insulting the intelligence of Ghanaians.