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Kweku Baako Jnr, Seasoned Journalist
Seasoned Journalist, Kweku Baako Jnr. has rubbished accusations by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) against the Chief Justice that he is trying to gag lawyers of the party.
The Chief Justice has petitioned the General Legal Council to summon Dr. Dominic Ayine over some alleged scandalous comments made by the latter.
“His Lordship the Chief Justice therefore finds his alleged disparaging comments totally unacceptable and would like you to investigate the matter,” the CJ said in his petition.
Dr. Ayine is said to have undermined the independence of the Judiciary during a public forum but he has refuted the claims, insisting he made his comments in good faith.
“As I have stated in this response, as a lawyer, I have a special responsibility to engage in criticism of the work of the judiciary. By reason of my training and experience, I am better placed than most of my fellow citizens to point out deficiencies in judgments and in the performance by the judiciary of its core constitutional mandate,” he asserted.
NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, in a press conference organized by the party on the petition, accused the CJ of suprevising a “judiciary tyranny”.
Dissecting the issue during a panel discussion on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’, Kweku Baako rebuked the NDC for creating an impression that members of the party who are lawyers are facing intimidation by the CJ.
Mr. Baako wondered why anybody would think the NDC affiliated lawyers are being intimidated seemingly to say it is untrue.
He disclosed that the lawyers have already confessed and apologized before the GLC, therefore questioned the logic of the NDC presser.
“The problem I have is that you have these lawyers, good lawyers, experienced lawyers members of a party; that is not the material point. The material point is that we are now being told by their party that these lawyers affiliated to them appear to have been singled out and are being intimidated into submission of some sort. Now, these lawyers, they’re lawyers; not people like us. They go before the Committee, a Committee which is part of their own profession, all this thing is captured in the Legal Professional Conduct And Etiquette Rules 2020 (LI 24/23)… They submit themselves to this; I don’t know maybe at a gunpoint and yet we have their party… there soliciting some sympathy… on their behalf that they’re being intimidated,” he stated.
“Don’t they have their own senses? Aren’t they trained minds? Aren’t they learned people? Aren’t they members of the learned profession? When they go to the Committee, what animal is that Committee?”, he lashed out at the NDC.
He called on the lawyers to ‘stand up and fight’ for themselves if they think they haven’t offended the law.
“If they know they have done anything wrong or violated their own (ethics of their profession)…why do you allow yourself to be intimidated into submission. I don’t want to buy that…I am not prepared to accept that they’re so docile.”
