Former President John Dramani Mahama has said the image of Ghana’s judiciary has broken down, saying it need urgent repair.[ads2]
To Mahama, the only way to revamp the state of the country’s judiciary is a change in leadership which he believes will win back the trust and confidence of Ghanaians.
Addressing the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Lawyers’ Conference last Sunday, Mr Mahama said that, “So badly has the image of our Judiciary deteriorated that many of our citizenry openly make mockery of our justice system and of our justices. The phrase ‘Go to Court’ is these days met with derisive laughter, instead of hope that one will truly get justice”.[ads3]
“There is therefore the urgent need for the Ghanaian Judiciary to work to win the trust and confidence of the citizenry, and erase the widely held perception of hostility and political bias in legal proceedings at the highest courts of the land”, the former President suggested.
The 2020 NDC flagbearer believes only a new Chief Justice with enough qualities can revamp the image of the judiciary and not the current administration.[ads4]
“Unfortunately, we have no hope that the current leadership of our Judiciary can lead such a process of change. We can only hope, that a new Chief Justice will lead the process to repair the broken image that our Judiciary has acquired over the last few years”.
Adding to what the former President had said, the National Chairman of the NDC, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo said that, “there have been issues of human rights abuses which are targeted at some of our people in our strongholds. The recent ones are what happened in the Yilo and Manya Krobo areas. Military officers were deployed to the area to unleash violence and brutalities on these innocent people. The narration from the people is most unfortunate, to say the least. These are strongholds of the NDC, and I think we have to send teams to support.”[ads5]
