Francis-Xavier Sosu
The Ghana Bar Association (GBA) has taken a swipe at the NDC Member of Parliament (MP) for Madina, Francis-Xavier Sosu, for his “unprofessional, unfortunate, irresponsible and distasteful” attacks on judges.
According to the professional association of lawyers, such attacks have a “high propensity of creating disaffection and ill-will for judges and the judiciary,” intimating that a lawyer in Ghana is bound by Rule 52 of L.I. 2423 not to make “a statement which the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard for its truth or falsity concerning the qualification or integrity of judicial and legal officials.”
Mr. Sosu, during the NDC-supported Coalition of Concerned Ghanaians demonstration against the government’s proposed tax on electronic transactions, known as E-Levy, stated that a future NDC government “will deal with political judges politically” when voted to power in 2024.
“If you are a judge, your fidelity is to the Constitution of Ghana and the laws of Ghana. If you allow yourself to be used as a political judge so that you can do the bidding of the ruling government, be warned, be warned, because we are watching closely at you. In the event that there’s a change of power, every political judge will be fished out, every political judge will be dealt with politically,” he stressed.
But the GBA, in expressing disquiet and grave disappointment over the MP’s branding of some judges as “political judges,” said the tenure of judges, per the Constitution of Ghana and other relevant laws, is not in any way tied to the tenure of the political regime under which judges are appointed, and such suggestions smack of deep-seated ignorance.
In a statement issued yesterday and signed jointly by its National President Yaw Acheampong Boafo and National Secretary, Kwaku Gyau Baffour, the GBA noted that judges, unlike political office holders, are not elected into office, hence “it is reckless for anybody to give the slightest suggestion that the tenure of judges are linked to the tenure of the political regimes under which judges are appointed.”
“The Legal Profession (Professional Conduct and Etiquette) Rules, 2020 (L.I. 2423) forbids a lawyer from making a statement about judicial and legal officials which the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard for its truth or falsity concerning the qualification and integrity of judicial and legal officials,” it added.
“The GBA takes a dim view of the very unprofessional conduct of Francis-Xavier Sosu Esq., and deems [the] same as an unwarranted, unnecessary and unjustified attack on judges. These unwarranted and unnecessary attacks on Judges have a high propensity of creating disaffection and ill-will for Judges and for that matter the Judiciary,” it emphasised.
The statement said the appointment and tenure of office of Justices of the Superior Courts are provided for in Articles 144, 145 and 146 of the 1992 Constitution.
“In particular, Article 146 states as follows: ‘146. (1) A Justice of the Superior Court or a Chairman of a Regional Tribunal shall not be removed from office except for stated misbehaviour or incompetence or on ground of inability to perform the functions of his office arising from infirmity of body or mind.”
“It is unequivocally clear that the appointment and tenure of office of Judges in Ghana are governed by the provisions of the Constitution, 1992, and other relevant laws of the country and not at the whims and caprices of any person or group of persons, including political regimes,” it indicated.
“Indeed, as stated above, Article 146(1) states in very clear terms the circumstances under which a Justice of the Superior Court can be removed,” the GBA further elucidated.
The body of lawyers cautioned people to be guided by Ghana’s history, asserting, “It was similar irresponsible and unguarded utterances in the past by people who ought to have known better that resulted in the abduction and gruesome murder of the three High Court Judges.”
“The GBA observes that such ignorant and deliberate misinformation is gradually but steadily casting a slur on the appreciable gains that have been made in our democratic experiment as a nation,” the statement intimated.
It continued, “It is in the light of this that the GBA views as unprofessional, irresponsible and totally out of place for a lawyer to make utterances in the nature of those by Francis-Xavier Sosu.”
The GBA advised all lawyers, irrespective of their status in society, to refrain from visiting unwarranted and unnecessary attacks on members of the judiciary and judges for that matter.
“Again, lawyers must always be circumspect and make strenuous efforts to make or give a true representation of the position of the law on each and every matter at all times. Our society stands to benefit a great deal when lawyers communicate the true and proper position of the law on every subject matter,” the statement concluded.
BY Ernest Kofi Adu