Former President John Mahama is alleging that President Akufo-Addo’s administration has packed the Ghanaian courts to escape accountability when the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is defeated in the next election.
The former President made controversial comments during the closing session of the 3rd Lawyers Conference organized by NDC Lawyers Association at Akosombo in the Eastern region.
“Our lawyers, some of you must be prepared to go unto the bunch, 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 to 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,” the former president alleged.
Mr Mahama called for judicial reforms to reinstate complete faith and confidence in Ghana’s judicial system.
“All opinion polling and other surveys that have been done show that the reputation of our judiciary is at its lowest and we all know what has contributed to this. There have been low level off credibility with the judiciary. Our people have always felt that there is monetary influence that influence judgement in both civil and criminal case and you remember the Anas exposure that led to the sacking of some judges”.
“But it has gone beyond monetary inducement. Now,it is also seen that the judiciary is partisan and a lot of people feel that justice is not served in many cases and we bear the brunt of that .You feel that the judiciary is partisan and in many cases some of the decisions are quiet bizarre .We do believe that there must be judicial reform. Indeed when you interview most Ghanaians they believe that there must be some reform of the judiciary in order to bolster its reputation and make it an independent institution that, not only Ghanaians but foreign investors and any person who is in the jurisdiction of Ghana can trust”.