GBA condemns Akufo-Addo comments against Mahama

The Ghana Bar Association (GBA) has taken on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for engaging in politics when he addressed members at the 23rd Ghana Bar Association Annual Conference in Cape Coast.

President Akufo-Addo had equally condemned former President John Dramani Mahama for an earlier accusation of the judiciary as being strewn with judges sympathetic towards the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

The 2024 National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer assured of balancing this out by appointing legal professionals who are also inclined towards his party.

This, President Akufo-Addo condemned in no uncertain terms on Monday, September 11 at the Conference.

“Not only are these concepts of ‘NPP’ and ‘NDC’ judges new in our public discourse, but 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,” he said.

“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.”

But speaking on Ghana Tonight on TV3 later in the day, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Association Saviour Kudze suggested that the President went too far.

“Regarding today’s comments that the President made relative to the condemnation of what [former] President Mahama said in respect of the allegation regarding the packing of the bench by the current President of people he described as NPP-inclined judges, I think we will not fault the President for that because already we have gone ahead to condemn that same statement,” he indicated.

“But to go ahead and say that because of that and other reasons, citizens should reject him come 2024, we condemn that because we wouldn’t like any politician to use our platform to campaign because that amounted to political campaigning.”

The legal practitioner also questioned the basis for which the President referred to Mr Mahama as a “perennial” candidate because he stressed that the reference better suits him, having contested elections several times in the past.

“So by and large, it is not true and we will not agree that our platform can be used by the current President to attack his political opponents. It just happened that he is a lawyer who has always been attending our conferences before he had become a president.”

He absolved the Association of any blame, saying it does not usually have the opportunity to know the content of the speeches of guests at such conferences.