From left: Justice Utter Derry, Justice Ayisi Addo, Justice Charles Quist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas
President Akufo-Addo has suspended four judges of the high court following investigations conducted by Anas Aremeyaw Anas, a journalist, and his Tiger Eye PI team.
The probe exposed grave corruption in the judiciary, but the previous administration failed to act on the report.
They are Justices Uuter Paul Dery, Mustapha Logoh, Gilbert Ayisi Addo and Charles Quist.
They and some of their colleagues were caught on video receiving bribes, including cash, live goats and foodstuffs from people whose cases were before them. The alleged bribes were facilitated by some court officials.
In a statement issued yesterday, Director of Communications at the Jubilee House, Eugene Arhin, stated, “The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Tuesday, 8th May, 2018, on the advice of the Judicial Council, given in accordance with Article 146 (10) (b) of the Constitution, suspended, with immediate effect, four (4) Justices of the High Court.
“The suspension follows the establishment of a prima facie case against the four Justices by the Committee set up by the Chief Justice to investigate alleged acts of bribery and corruption against certain persons, including the four Justices, as contained in the 29th August, 2015 petition of Anas Aremeyaw Anas.”
The president has since written to notify each of the four judges of the decision.
Anas Aremeyaw Anas’ investigative piece caught 34 judges and magistrates on camera trading justice for goats, sheep and other rewards.
Former Chief Justice Georgina Wood constituted a committee to investigate the matter and dismissed magistrates who admitted taking the money and other rewards to dispense justice.
Some of the high court judges protested against any disciplinary action against them and proceeded to court to challenge the decision.
The four judges were among those who protested against the punitive measures.
Three of the judges then followed up with an action at the African Court on Human and People’s Rights.
The three judges, Uuter Paul Dery, Mustapha Logoh and Gilbert Ayisi Addo, filed a fresh suit at the ECOWAS Court on March 29 over their suspension from the Judicial Service, pending their likely removal from office as high court Judges.
A court in Mali heard their case and fixed May 30 for judgement.
They were praying the court to restrain the judiciary from “proceeding with the impeachment of the plaintiffs pending the hearing and determination of this suit.”
The three were among the 22 lower court and 12 high court judges indicted in the September 2015 judicial corruption exposé.
Even before the release of the video, Justice Dery had filed an unsuccessful suit to prevent the footage from being screened publicly.
Justice Logoh also cited the Chief Justice -Justice Theodora Georgina Wood – for contempt of court.
He questioned why she was going ahead to begin impeachment proceedings against him when he had other suits pending before the court on his interdiction.
Logoh further sued Anas for fraud, questioning the legality of the investigation conducted by Tiger Eye PI.
Some of the judges already dismissed are Francis K. Opoku, Kofi Essel Mensah, John Ajet Nasam, Ernest Obimpeh, Kwame Ohene Essel and Ivy Heward-Mills.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent