General Mosquito bites Chief Justice, accuses him of administrative abuse
The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Hon. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, popularly known as ‘General Mosquito’ has accused the Chief Justice, His Lordship Justice Anin Yeboah, of administrative abuse, saying unimaginable administrative abuses are characterizing the reign of the Chief Justice.
Addressing the media in Accra, Mr Nketiah said, these abuses are thrown into sharp relief when the conduct of the current Chief Justice is measured against the professionalism and conduct of former Chief Justices. He noted that the Chief Justice has failed to show leadership and to “keep the flag of the judiciary flying” by abusing his power to empanel the courts.
He explained that the various courts have been thrown into a state of utter confusion where one could now witness even land cases being sent to commercial courts, clear-cut commercial court cases being sent to the human rights court and criminal cases sent to the judges at the Land Division.
“It has been our understanding that the setting up of divisions of the High Court in Accra such as the Criminal Division, Land Division, the Human Rights Division, and the Commercial Division were all meant to ensure that these specialized courts deal with matters that directly fall within their competence and jurisdictions. In fact, these courts started very beautifully and many were those who hailed the establishment of the court.
“Recently, the case involving Dr Cassiel Ato Forson was originally assigned to Justice Solomon Oppong Twumasi only for the judge to announce in open court that the Chief Justice had reassigned the case to another judge in another division of the High Court. This development is quite mind-boggling and we wonder why for us in Ghana, we start everything with so much aplomb and funfair only for us to ruin it along the way,” he stated.
Mr Nketiah expressed worry about the phenomenon where Court of Appeal Judges is appointed to preside over High Court Cases. He said these appointments are a damper and go a long way to de-motivate the judges at the High Courts.
“By these appointments, is the Chief Justice saying that the said cases could not have any competent Justice of the High Court as currently constituted to deal with them or it is more the case that the Chief Justice has a cadet of justices who are specially deployed to do the bidding of his political masters?” he questioned.
