The Director of Legal Affairs for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gary Nimako has taken on former President John Mahama for insisting that the judiciary has been packed with NPP-aligned judges.
In the estimation of Mr. Nimako, such an utterance should not be coming from a statesman.
While speaking at the NDC Lawyers Conference in Akosombo over the weekend, the 2024 NDC presidential candidate accused President Akufo-Addo of appointing members of his party to the bench to influence decisions in their favour.
He thus charged NDC lawyers to prepare themselves to take up positions on the bench to balance out its composition.
“Our lawyers, some of you must be prepared to go onto the bench, I know that some of you have very lucrative legal practices you will not want to leave and go onto the bench. But you can see what the current President has done; he appointed the largest number of judges onto the bench. More than 80 towards hundred and counting.
“He’s packed the court and we know that they’ve packed the court because they want to avoid accountability after they have left office. So, all manner of people who have been known to be partisan, to have been executives of their party who are in the legal profession have been leapfrogged onto the Superior courts and other places,” he said.
But his comments have received some condemnations with the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) in particular calling him out.
Sharing his opinion in an interview with Citi FM on Monday, September 4, Gary Nimako said no judge is serving President Akufo-Addo’s interest.
He added that the comments Mr Mahama made means he does not understand how the court system works in the country.
“They are making it appear as if the court deals with only political cases. President Akufo-Addo has built over 100 quarters across the country, shouldn’t they be staffed by human beings, judges, and staff? Who is saying that the judges are party people? What is the check to say those there are party people?
“There’s no appointee serving the interest of the president. It was the same courts that made former President Mahama the president, wasn’t it? The same Supreme Court, in 2013, at that time was the court a political court?”
Source: myjoyonline.com