The Dean of Faculty of Law at the University of Professional Studies Accra (UPSA), Dr Ernest Kofi Abotsi has advised politicians and the general public to cease from making allegations against judges without evidence.
According to the renowned lawyer, allegations without evidence levelled against judges could destroy public confidence in the judiciary which could subsequently threathen peace and stability by inciting conflict and chaos.
He explained that, “in many countries that fell victim to civil wars, the starting point was to bastardise the court. Once you bastardise the court, people think that there is no avenue for resolution so they fight on the streets. I think we should be very careful [about] the extent to which we bastardise our Court.”
Dr Abotsi was reacting to comments made by MP for Asawase, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka, alleging that a Supreme Court judge tried to bribe one of his colleague MPs to vote for Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye in the recent election of Speaker of the 8th Parliament.
“Look, people have all kinds of suspicions and allegations, but saying things, particularly, when you are a Member of Parliament, should demand a certain level of responsibility because a lot of people follow you.”
“I do not know the factual basis on which the statement was made, but once the statement is not being submitted to a particular forum for investigation and once the details of this are not being mentioned then what you do is that you literally put and cast the entire court in doubts and [it] creeps question marks on the minds of every justice of the court and this is not good enough,” the Dean said.
, Dr Ernest Kofi Abotsi has advised politicians and the general public to cease from making allegations against judges without evidence.){kind=link}