President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo lashed out at former president John Dramani Mahama over recent comments on judicial partisanship and political imbalance of the bench.
Akufo-Addo held that the former president’s comments were both dangerous and reckless for a politician of his stature.
He went on to make reference to John Mahama’s reported designation in a Special Prosector report of 2020 that identified him as Government Official 1 in the yet-to-be-resolved Airbus bribery scandal.
The report was issued by pioneer Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, in his corruption assessment report on the botched Agyapa Royalties deal.
Responding to Akufo-Addo’s attack on Mahama, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) head of legal affairs, Edudzi Kudzo Tameklo described the president as delusional.
He reminded Akufo-Addo that he had also been given a reference in the report by the same Special Prosecutor.
“Delusional president, Mr Akufo Addo. Martin Amidu referred to you specifically as the mother serpent of CORRUPTION,” he posted on Facebook on September 11, the same day Akufo-Addo addressed the annual Bar Conference.
It was in his address he lashed out at Mahama towards the tail end of his speech.
What Akufo-Addo said:
In the overwhelming number of cases of justices designated to the Supreme Court, that approval has been given on a bi-partisan basis. You can count on the fingers of a hand the number of justices-designate whose approval met less than unanimous consent.
I have gone into this matter in some detail because of a new concept that has been recently introduced into our public discourse by no less a public figure than the 4th President of the 4th Republic, the perennial NDC presidential candidate, John Dramani Mahama, who has told the world that I have packed the courts with so-called “NPP judges”, and that one of the key purposes of a putative NDC victory in 2024 will be to enable him balance the courts with so-called “NDC judges”.
Not only are these concepts of “NPP” and “NDC” judges new in our public discourse, but they are also extremely dangerous, and represent the most brazen attack on the independence of the judiciary by any allegedly responsible politician of the 4th Republic.
They provide another reason, if more were needed, why right-thinking citizens should ensure the defeat in 2024 of the man whom the first Special Prosecutor identified as Government Official No.1, in the still unresolved Airbus Bribery Scandal.
Source: ghanaweb.com
