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A former president of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Sam Okudzeto, has described the Private Members’ Bill by two NDC MPs to exclude the Chief Justice as well as other Justices of the Supreme Court from the General Legal Council (GLC) as a big “joke”.

In a memo to the Clerk to Parliament, the two MPs – Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor (representing South Dayi) and Francis-Xavier Sosu (Madina) – said the bill is aimed at redefining “the functions of the GLC and to provide for reforms in legal education such that accredited faculties of law with the requisite facilities would be licensed to run professional law courses, provide for discipline of lawyers and related matters to give effect to Article 37(1) of the 1992 constitution.”

However, speaking in an  interview with Asaase Radio on Wednesday (3 November), Okudzeto said: “If they (the two MPs) are lawyers, then their understanding of the law leaves a lot of question.”

“I have been a member of the disciplinary committee for a number of years, I am still there… if I tell you the  number of complaints that keep coming there…

“So I don’t see how the qualified lawyer is going to appear before the court and you say that those for who we are going to appear before do not have any power of control over their training, or education. It’s a joke. I must confess that they are jokers and I don’t know who they are and I don’t want to know who they are,” Okudzeto told AsaaseFM.

He has therefore advised the two NDC MPs to tread cautiously.

“They have problems, I think they should just go and keep quiet because there can be more troubles than they realised in the fact that we are concerned. If you misbehave, we will deal with you in accordance with the rules and laws that have been laid down,” he said.