Egbert Faibille: No Lawyer Is A Coward; Those Who Have Seen It Should Say It

Managing Editor of the Ghanaian Observer newspaper, Lawyer Egbert Faibille says the call by the judges to the four lawyers to substantiate allegations of bribery leveled against judges in Ghana is justified. Lawyers Dr Raymond Atuguba, David Annan, Abraham Amaliba and Larry Bimi have all been drawn before the General Legal Council for making unsubstantiated allegations of corruption against the judiciary. The four lawyers made the allegations at a round-table discussion on the Judiciary and Ghana�s justice system in Accra, organized by the National Commission for Civic Education as part of its annual constitution week. All the lawyers have questioned the need to drag them before the council especially when they only re-echoed a phenomenon that everyone is already aware of. However, Egbert Faibille tells Xfm 95.1 it is not enough to make sweeping comments that the judiciary is corrupt and then leave it at that, insisting, �it is not fair�. He says since �no lawyer in Ghana is trained to be a coward, those who say they have lived it and seen it, should come out and say it� in order for the judiciary to be cleansed. �People make general statements, this is what we in law will call group libel; for instance, �nobody can tell me that broadcast journalists are not corrupt�- it is too general, so you move and say, �among the broadcast journalists, I have evidence to say Madam A is corrupt�. Then we have something to work with, but if you just go and do a general pronouncement thinking that you will be cozy enough because you have not mentioned anybody�s name and that the burden now rest on the judiciary to prove, it is unfair�. Egbert Faibille opined that the judiciary is never perceived to be corrupt in the daily discharge of justice in the country until the government loses �so �called political� cases, asking further, �do you know the people who have lost land in this country because of judgment; do you know the number of people who are in custody today that are not supposed to be there; those ones we do not see? He says the judiciary as a whole cannot be charged before a court of law for general corruption, and so the need for those who alleged to prove. �It is individual judges who may be charged for specific cases of corruption. So what is stopping anybody who has evidence against a particular individual judge from coming forward to make reports against such persons for them to be taken on?� he asked.