Feature: Atugubism in Defense of Fraud? By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jnr, Ph.D.
Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jnr, Ph.D.
The decision by a Supreme Court panel majority led by Justice William Atuguba to stay proceedings in the case involving Dr. Zenator Agyeman-Rawlings and Nii Armah Ashitey, the incumbent National Democratic Congress’ Member of Parliament for the Klottey-Korle Constituency of Central-Accra, ought to worry all justice- and democracy-loving Ghanaians (See “High Court Erred in Dr. Zenator Case – SC Rules” Ghana News Agency/Modernghana.com 5/19/16).

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It ought to worry any justice- and democracy-loving Ghanaian, because it clearly appears that the eldest daughter of Chairman Jerry John Rawlings and the former junta leader cum democratically elected former president of Ghana are trying to use the latter’s considerable political influence in the country to effectively nullify the judiciary. This is especially dangerous, when one also factors in Chairman Rawlings’ well-documented history of judicial assassinations of the members of the bench whose conduct and/or ideological orientation he has been known to resent (See the Azu-Crabbe Commission’s SIB Report).

In a 4-to-1 decision, largely split along inescapably political lines, rather than the letter of the law, as poignantly and lamentably observed by Justice Anin-Yeboah, the sole dissenting voice on the five-person judicial panel, the apex court decided to “technically” impugn the professional integrity of Justice Kwaku Ackah-Boafo, of the Accra High Court, by mischievously claiming that the high court judge flagrantly infringed on the constitutionally stipulated jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Ghana when he invoked an article of the country’s 1992 Republican Constitution to underscore the fraudulent decision of the defendant in the case, to wit, Dr. Zenator Agyeman-Rawlings, to participate in last year’s Klottey-Korle parliamentary primary.

Here again, as Justice Anin-Yeboah rightly pointed out in his dissenting opinion, Justice Ackah-Boafo did not err in referencing Article 94(1) of the Constitution because he had not presumed to judicially interpret the same. And on the latter score must be promptly noted that recently, Mr. Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, the General-Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, publicly confessed to having induced Dr. Agyeman-Rawlings to deliberately violate the constitutional stipulation that a candidate running for parliament ought to be a registered member of the party on whose ticket s/he intended to contest for a seat. Dr. Agyeman-Rawlings was not a registered member of the National Democratic Congress late last year, when she run and won the NDC’s Klottey-Korle parliamentary primary.

Needless to say, one does not need a law degree, let alone be deemed qualified to sit on the Supreme (Court) Bench, in order to fully appreciate the all-too-glaring fact that this is an open-and-shut case of naked fraud, a veritable crime for which Dr. Agyeman-Rawlings ought not be rewarded with an illegal validation of a candidacy that clearly violates both the letter and spirit of the country’s 1992 Republican Constitution.

This is inexcusably scandalous, especially when one reckons the fact that many a levelheaded and forward-looking Ghanaian has yet to recover from the abject judicial travesty visited on our pates by the Atuguba-presided panel in the landmark case of the 2012 presidential election petition. That the Atuguba name is fast becoming synonymous with brazen judicial travesty, is one that ought to worry all conscientious and morally straitlaced Ghanaians. There is still hope that justice will, somehow, be served. Both plaintiff and defendant, as of this writing, had been given two weeks to “re-present” their cases before the apex court.

Even more painful is the image that such kangaroo approach to the ministration of justice communicates to the rest of the civilized and enlightened democratic world, about the caliber of Ghanaian citizens privileged to occupy the highest bench of the land. I weep for Ghana and our morally twisted and irredeemably depraved brand of what constitutes justice and fair play.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs

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