Godfred Yeboah Dame
THE ATTORNEY General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, has advocated for the strengthening of the Legal Aid Commission to enable it deliver on its mandate of rendering free legal services to the poor throughout the country.
According to him, the state of the Legal Aid Commission, which is one of the institutions under the Office of the Attorney General, is clearly far from desirable and is a “sad reflection on our commitment as a nation, since 1987, to provide for the indigent and eliminate inequalities and injustice in society.”
Mr. Dame was speaking at the launch of the Legal Aid Commission Fund and Law Reform Commission Fund in Accra on Wednesday.
The operations of the Legal Aid Commission and the Law Reform Commission, two very important institutions, have been hampered by a severe lack of funds, even though the respective Acts under which these institutions were established provide for a Fund to be set up for them, yet they have been operating for many years.
It is in this regard that the Attorney General championed the launch of the two funds to provide a lifeline for the two institutions which have suffered from lack of funds and infrastructure over the years, thereby hampering their effective operations.
Mr. Dame quoted Mahatma Ghandi’s popular saying that “a nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members,” and indicated that the state of legal aid in Ghana since time immemorial clearly presents a challenge to the delivery of justice to the weak members of the country.
He said a visit to the Legal Aid Commission in February this year revealed that the commission, like most institutions under the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice, labours under dreadful infrastructural and logistical hardships for many decades.
The Attorney General revealed that the temporary premises from which the Legal Aid Commission has been operating is now in a state of complete dilapidation, and has become woefully too small to accommodate the various offices and divisions of the commission required by law to be set up.
He said efforts are being made to revamp the commission to enable it deliver on its mandate, and revealed that his Office has this year provided it with 13 vehicles to shore up its fleet of vehicles from six to 19, and plans are far advanced to acquire a land for the construction of a permanent office for the Legal Aid Commission once work is completed on the ongoing new office premises for the Attorney General.
Mr. Dame added that Legal Aid is a catalyst for equality, justice and fairness in society, while the Law Reform Commission has the ability to transform the laws of Ghana in tune with modern trends and, therefore, urged Ghanaians to donate generously to the two funds.
Government through the Ministry of Finance contributed GH₵2 million as seed capital to the two funds while President Akufo-Addo, on his own, also contributed GH₵100,000 to each of the funds.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak