Thinking Aloud: The law as an ass
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly while bad people will find a way around the law. -Plato
Advertisement
If we will be quiet and ready, we shall find compensation in every disappointment. -Henry Thoreau.
I had originally determined not to comment on the exposé of alleged massive corruption within the Judicial Service involving justices of the Superior Court of Judicature at the High Court level. However, two things challenged me to come out of my coil.
Primarily, the Editor of the Daily Graphic, Ransford Tetteh, asked me why as a lawyer I had not proffered any opinion on the matter, while the second reason stems from the fact that among the justices of the High Court that Anas commended was Justice Anthony Oppong, the judge that a former Deputy Attorney General and now First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Ebo Barton Odro, accused of having compromised his integrity in the matter of the Dagbon Ya Na murder trial.
I had the privilege of teaching Justice Oppong at the Tetrem Secondary School, now Osei Tutu II Senior High School, and have since followed his progress from university through the Ghana School of Law and his services at the Bar from Circuit to the High Court, especially when he served in Sekondi.
I am eternally grateful to God that Anas found Justice Oppong incorruptible.
A large number of people have asked why the judges are challenging the showing of the film on the investigations and whether they are any better than personnel of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority, who were similarly exposed by Anas’s investigations.
I cannot hold brief for the judges, but the only thing I can say is that the judges cannot speak for the others and that if the others chose to sleep on their rights, the judges may not. In any case, we must be patient and be happy that the frontiers of the rule of law and due process could be expanded as we go through judicial proceedings over the matter as to whether the findings in the undercover investigations could pass for admissibility in evidence before a court of competent jurisdiction. At the end of the day, it is a judge or justices who will pronounce on the matter.
The argument of the circuit court judges and magistrates is that the process initiated by the Judicial Council to have them disciplined is flawed in law, while Justice U.P. Dery is saying that the showing of the film to the public before it is presented as evidence against him is prejudicial to his cause. It seems to suggest that he would have been condemned before the court of public opinion before he might get the opportunity to defend himself.
But will that fuel public suspicion that the judges are trying to use technicalities to destroy the information gathered by Anas? Are those who are ridiculing the judges for seeking to use the due process of the law to defend themselves not talking out of ignorance and sentiments or emotions? The fact is that the legal maxim is that a suspect remains innocent until proven guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction.
Ours is a constitutional democracy founded on the rule of law and due process. Therefore, we should not be in haste to condemn the judges merely because they seek to apply the process of the rule of law to establish their innocence or otherwise. When the matter comes up in open court, we will have the benefit of listening to the arguments of counsel for the affected lawyers and the state, such that we can make informed decisions for ourselves.
The Judicial Council could have conducted investigations in camera into the matter before bringing it into the open. That way, the established procedures could have been followed. That is important because our jurisprudence requires that every material that will be relied upon for prosecution must be made available to the suspects to enable them to defend themselves.
We equally need to take note of the statement by the Chief Justice at the Bar Conference in Kumasi that all the suspects would be given the fullest opportunity under the rule of law and due process. What Justice Dery has done gives meaning to the position espoused by Mrs Georgina Theodora Wood.
Ghanaians must exercise patience. This matter touches the core of the judiciary. We must not jump to needless and ill-informed conclusions that there is some conspiracy and that there will be some complicity since the issues are matters about judges, between judges and by judges. No one should think that the law is an ass. We need the application of the rules of law to establish the essence of the law.
