The Director of Conflict Resolution of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Abraham Amaliba, has criticized the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) for chiding lawyers allegedly denigrating the judicial service.
Amaliba described the GBA as shameful and urged it to ditch its assumed mouthpiece role of the judicial service and take up a humanitarian position.
He told Umaru Sanda Amadu on Citi FM that the GBA should channel its energy toward ensuring the proper functioning of courts across the country, such as restoring water supply to the Adentan Court, which has had its supply cut by the Ghana Water Company.
“What needs to be stopped is the Ghana Bar Association turning itself into the mouthpiece of the judiciary. It is not done anywhere in the world, and it is only in Ghana that the BAR forms a cursory relationship with the judiciary and performs the role of a PRO for the judiciary. The BAR must bow its head in shame for shirking its role as the mouthpiece for the voiceless, the oppressed, and the marginalized. If they have found their voices now, what they should do is channel that into taking care of the welfare needs of its members.”
“When you go to the Adentan Court premises, which houses the district, circuit, and high courts, the washrooms are not available because the Ghana Water Company has cut water to the building. This should concern the BAR.”
President of the Ghana Bar Association, Yaw Acheampong Boafo, at a press conference on Wednesday, October 18, called on members of the Association who belong to political parties to desist from making utterances that tend to denigrate the judicial service.
Amaliba, in his interview, however, fumed that “they are more political than those of us who have come out openly to identify with a political party. When we talk about partisanship, they are more partisan than those of us who openly come out to identify with a political party.”
