Godfred Yeboah Dame and Thaddeus Sory
Former Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, has taken a swipe at private legal practitioner, Thaddeus Sory, describing his constant unprovoked attacks on him as a sign of obsession and bewildering jealousy that need healing.
According to him, Mr. Sory’s predilection to comment on the slightest thing he (Dame) does or says is not lost on the public, observing that his fellow lawyer, for some time now has been expending enormous energy, time and resources to launch public attacks on him in relation to his work.
“I live in your mind rent free. Indeed, your obsession with Godfred Dame is bewildering and needs healing,” he stated.
Mr. Dame’s statement was in response to a strong-worded post Mr. Sory made on social media platform, Facebook, in which he described the former Attorney General as ‘incongruous cry baby.’
Mr. Sory, on the other hand, was responding to Mr. Dame’s suggestion that the three lawyers representing the three petitioners calling for the removal of the Chief Justice – Tsatsu Tsikata who is a known National Democratic Congress (NDC) lawyer, Mr. Sory, who is the Speaker of Parliament’s lawyer, and Oliver Barker-Vormawor, who is said to have ties with the NDC, is a clear indication that the whole process was an NDC orchestration.
Mr. Sory debunked this assertion and indicated that he is a professional who is bound by legal ethics to represent anyone who retains him, subject only to certain exceptions, adding that he had represented some New Patriotic Party (NPP) clients in the past.
He then went on to make certain allegations against Mr. Dame, including a suggestion that his legal acumen suddenly improved just because he became Attorney-General.
Dame Fires Back
But Mr. Dame, in a sharp rebuttal, refuted the claims made by Mr. Sory, describing them as being fueled by jealousy and obsession.
Mr. Dame highlighted his stellar legal career prior to his appointment as Deputy Attorney General and later Attorney General, recalling innumerable victories he had recorded in courts across the country.
Mr. Dame even recalled a case which he worn at the High Court in which Mr. Sory was opposing counsel between 2007 and 2009, and also lost same on appeal at the Court of Appeal.
“In all humility, I say, as a testament to the strength of Ghana’s judicial system, that the record of the consistent success I enjoyed in the courts in innumerable high-profile cases I conducted between 2003 and 2007 (as a relatively junior lawyer) and between 2009 and 2017 (when I was not the Attorney-General but a lawyer who was a member of the opposition), is there for all to verify. It is this independence of Ghana’s judiciary that I see is threatened by recent happenings in Ghana, and which I seek to protect. You and the NDC’s desperation to churn out a false narrative now will not change the situation,” Mr. Dame pointed out.
The former Attorney General also indicated that the legal acumen Mr. Sory suggested he found during his time as Attorney General, was not limited to the domestic territories of Ghana, as he deployed same to the successful defence of Ghana’s interests in many international arbitration cases and foreign courts, saving the nation billions of United States Dollars.
“In point of fact, in my tenure as Attorney General, Ghana emerged victorious in all the international arbitrations my humble self and my able deputies led the Office to conduct without the aid of foreign counsel,” he stressed.
Mr. Dame also clarified that he had never said that Mr. Sory has not represented NPP clients, as he is aware of Mr. Sory’s association with NPP clients, particularly, when he was a junior to Ambrose Dery in Dery & Co.
“The irrefutable point I make now is that Mr. Tsikata was President Mahama’s lawyer in the last election petition in 2020. You are the current Speaker of Parliament’s lawyer and double as lawyer for a person who is aggrieved by judgments delivered by the Chief Justice against him in his attempt to recover some gargantuan money from Ecobank. If you do not find it “incongruous” that the lawyers of the heads of two arms of government have teamed up to remove the lady Chief Justice of the Republic from office, I cannot fault you,” he added.
Mr. Dame also pointed out that his call for judicial independence did not begin today, as he did same even when he was the Attorney General.
He also observed Mr. Sory asserting his duty to ‘represent anyone who retains him’, wondering whether he (Dame) does not owe the same duty.
Mr. Dame concluded by hoping this will be his only and ever response to Mr. Sory, adding that “I will continue to ignore all your provocative comments.”
BY Gibril Abdul Razak