The Director of Legal Affairs of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gary Nimako, has lashed out at former President John Dramani Mahama, cautioning him to desist from running down the judiciary.
The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), addressing the closing ceremony of the 3rd Annual Lawyers Conference of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Saturday, September 2, claimed that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has deliberately appointed the most judges to the bench in order to have people who will do his bidding when he is out of office and called on NDC members to “balance out” the bench.
Mr. Mahama alleged that, “Currently, the judiciary is packed with NPP-inclined judges because this government has carried out a deliberate policy of putting their people onto the bench.”
During an interview on Eyewitness News with Umaru Sanda Amadu, Gary Nimako stated that such comments have the potential to jeopardize the confidence of Ghanaians in the country’s legal system.
He therefore warned the former president to be cautious of his future commentary about the judiciary, describing his comments as “unfortunate.”
The Director of Legal Affairs of the NPP rubbished claims that appointee judges are doing the bidding of President Akufo-Addo.
“It’s very unfortunate, it exposes their lack of understanding of how the court system works, 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, isn’t it? The same Supreme Court, in 2013, at that time was the court a political court?”
He emphasized, “Let’s be careful not to destroy our institutions of state. The judiciary is a very sensitive institution in the history of our country. I’m not comfortable at all with the way former president Mahama is running the judiciary down. Let’s be very careful as Ghanaians, else, people will lose interest and confidence in the judiciary and say well if that is the case, they will take the law into their hands and will not go to court. Let’s be very careful as a country. If we destroy the judiciary, it’s a very dangerous precedent we are doing for ourselves. It’s a very serious matter we must look at. How do you say that we should balance an equation? Even if what you are saying is true, we should pack the courts with NDC members when you get power. How do you say that?”
He questioned if the NDC will create new courts when they come to power since they doubt the credibility of the current judiciary.
“Do you know that the NDC two-term 2009 MP for Amenfi Central is a high court judge in the Volta Region? If we decide to run the institutions down, it will not help. Will they create their own courts when they come to power?” he asked.
Gary Nimako emphasised that cases not backed by evidence are likely to be thrown out of court.
“Before you go to court, your evidence must be solid. You go to court without evidence, your case is thrown away and you come and say it’s politics. I don’t think the court is politicized now. What I think strongly is that if you are going to the court, go with a solid case. If you go with a solid case, you will hear good news from the judges. But if it’s a bad case, you will lose,” he pointed out.