Packing the Courts: Corrupting Ghana’s Justice Delivery System

We all know that Akufo-Addo is the Mother Serpent of Corruption, we also know that he spared Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo an Article 146 Petition for her removal from office, in breach of the Constitution.

There were agitations when Justice Yehonugah was appointed by President Akufo-Addo to the Supreme Court and now there are allegations that yet another #AgendaForChange NPP activist has been nominated by President Akufo-Addo to the apex court…

The Packing of the courts in America by President Donald Trump is not a novelty and reasons for packing not unique.

The alleged Packing of the courts in Ghana by President Akufo-Addo must be thoroughly investigated especially on the back of the poor perception of the Judiciary by the public as evidenced in the recent Ghana Statistical Service, CHRAJ and CDD Afrobarometer surveys on Corruption.

The entire Justice Delivery System of Ghana has been declared very corrupt, from the Ghana Police to the Office of the President including the Attorney General and perhaps the Special Prosecutor to the Judiciary.

The least Parliament can do to improve its image, is to block such appointments and avoid the routine rubber stamp passage of misfits brought before the Appointments Committee.

Ghanaians believe that Ghana’s current mess could have been stopped by the Parliament’s Appointments Committee much earlier if the evidence at their vetting was used to disqualify Ken Ofori-Atta and a host of others.

The Ghana Police Service issued a useless statement questioning why they are perceived as the most Corrupt institution in Ghana.

The IGP doesn’t have to look far, he should tell Ghanaians per their investigation into the Cantonments Civil Aviation Landgrab, immediately name the faceless persons stealing the State Lands and Bungalows.

The IGP must also tell Ghanaians why despite the presence of DCOP Kwesi Ofori and other senior Police officers at Kpletso on 15th April, 2021 when men in Ghana Army uniforms went on a shooting Spree and assaulted unarmed civilians including journalists and citizens of La, three of whom have since died, he has refused to make public any Report on that incident despite a petition, reminder and request for a copy of an investigation into the Kpletso Shooting and Assault by the Military.

Ghanaians do not trust the Ghana Police Service only because of the bribes they regularly take.

Ghanaians want to know who is funding the fanciful tall wall being built around the Police Headquarters and the beautification project in the median of the street in front of the CID Headquarters stretch; when Ghana and therefore the Ghana Police Service is broke?

Why is the Ghana Police Service looking on for Landguards such as Clemence Gyato and his vigilante Aynok Holdings continue to play the role of the Ghana Police with State support sometimes in the company of Police officers implying complicity?

As for the President, his Attorney General and the Special Prosecutor, Ghanaians have already passed their judgement.

The Judiciary needs to be kept above partisanship and corruption especially after the Election Petition and the TigerEye video of judges taking bribes of yams, goats, money…

The Land Looting Chief Justices and Judges have severely dented the image of the Judiciary and questioned their motivation for Judgments in Land Cases including the landmark Jane Obetsebi-Lamptey Ridge Bungalow Case and the Nii Kpobi Tettey Tsuru vs Attorney General judgment which is believed by many to be a travesty of justice requiring a Judicial Review.

When the State takes Land, it cannot and must not be passed on to other private persons, cronies, family members, friends and business associates as is currently happening without returning same to the Original Land Owners with the right of first refusal as in Article 20 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.

This wrongful interpretation of Article 20; is the reason for the mass Land Looting and fraudulent allocation of State Lands being witnessed which is also leading to the unwillingness of Land Owners to release Lands to government for developmental projects for fear of  having their lands stolen, sold cheap or allocated to private persons as is the case of most La Stool Lands annexed by the State.

Investigations into the Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo fraudulent Cantonments Land allocation and the many others captured with particulars of the allocations in the appendix of the Article 146 Petition for her removal, the role of President Akufo Addo and the Council of State in breaching the Constitution to prevent her being investigated and removed will help improve the public perception of corruption ofthe Judiciary, the Presidency and other State organs.

That Justice Sophia Akuffo unashamedly bought prime State Lands at Cantonments for GHC7000 is not in doubt.

That Justice Sophia Akuffo is holding on to the prime Cantonments State Land worth millions, when she ruled in the Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey Ridge Bungalow Case against him is not in doubt.

That at the time of Justice Sophia Akuffo sitting on the Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey Ridge Bungalow Case, which she should have recused herself,  both she and Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey had been fraudulently allocated State Lands at Cantonments, is indeed the case.

Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Woode on the other hand readily released the prime Airport State Land she had exchanged her low-cost Akweteyman Land for, when she was confronted with an Article 146 Petition for her removal from office as Chief Justice.

That Prime Airport State Land originally acquired for the International Students Hostel under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Woode together with Lawyer Atta-Kyea (her brother-inlaw), KT Hammond, Afua Kuenyehia and others were given by phone call, was retrieved by President John Evans Atta Mills and used to build the current Foreign Affairs Office Complex.

This action by President John Evans Atta Mills, should be the Gold Standard for the retrieval or Return of State Lands as per E.I. 432 or Article 20 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.

A Judicial Enquiry, a Parliamentary Enquiry or a Presidential Enquiry into the canker of corruption cannot be without a thorough review of all State Lands especially as the Lands Commission has become the conduit for creating instant millionaires, hiding of Proceeds of Corruption and Money Laundering through land transactions.

Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo was reported by Rev. Victor Kusi-Boateng and Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah of the Cathedral Secretariat on national television and radio to have given Cathedral Secretariat “Judicial Permission” to proceed with the construction work despite the pendency of an injunction and a Substantive Court Case by Lawyer Bright Akwetey litigating the land on which the Cathedral Project was to be sited.

The illegal Agreement signed by the Lands Ministry with a notorious Landguard Clemence Gyato and Anyok Holdings to reclaim encroached State Lands and be paid with portions of the State Lands which is shared with some government officials must be investigated.

The Stephen Ntim State Lands Stealing and Selling Scam alleged by Kennedy Agyepong who claims to be a victim must be investigated.

The use of the Military as Landguards and to annex Lands as is happening at Kpletso near the illegal Military Cemetery near Airport Hills must be thoroughly investigated.

The public perception of corruption and the recent corruption experience survey by the Ghana Statistical Service cannot be wished away.

Ghanaians are resolved to be Citizens and not Spectators.

God Save Our Homeland Ghana from the corrupt Land Looters.

#SeeSomething

#SaySomething

By Prince-Derek Adjei