Mohammed Abdul Aziz, former Member of Parliament for Mion, has revealed that, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) should be allowed to probe the $5 million bribe allegation against Chief Justice Anin-Yeboah.

According to him, the previous conduct of the CID “in recent past” has led to low public confidence that they can “do any proper job and report same”.

His comments follow a $5 million bribery allegation brought against Chief Justice Anin-Yeboah by Akwasi Afrifa, a lawyer.

The Chief Justice has subsequently petitioned the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe the allegation.

“When I looked at the constitution, the article 218 E… it is very clear that CHRAJ is empowered. They’re anchored on law to investigate all instance of alleged or suspected corruption and misappropriation of public monies by officials to take appropriate steps.

“So, CHRAJ in my estimation is the best institution to be able to deal with this matter. We must ensure that there is some confidence in our judiciary. When President Akufo-Addo swore in Chief Justice Anin-Yeboah, he was charged to jealously guard the independence of the judiciary. If these allegations are established, that obviously does not bring honour to the judiciary”.

Additionally, Mr Aziz maintained that currently, there is discontentment in the public space in the judiciary. As a result, he does not trust the CID to “do any proper investigation on this matter”.

“And for the Chief Justice to be alleged to be involved in such a behaviour of demanding some $5 million is regrettable. We must do a full scale investigation and that is where CHRAJ comes in hand. According to him, the Chief Justice is the head of the judiciary and cannot be “a judge in your own court”. As such, we should have an “appropriate forum” like CHRAJ to handle the matter.

Alleged bribery, deal gone bad

On his part, the MP for Old Tafo, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, insisted that the NDC is only “peeved” about the outcome of the election petition. According to him, the alleged bribery is merely a deal which went sour for the plaintiff.

He further asserted that if that isn’t the case, he doesn’t see why state institutions like CHRAJ is supposed to establish a prima facie case.

Mr Assafuah also established that the parties involved in the court case have dissociated themselves from any dealings with the Chief Justice.

“On the face of the narrative that I am seeing, I can only see that it is a deal gone bad. Because Ogyeedom has already issued a statement saying that he does not know the Chief Justice… The lawyer is also saying that he does not have any dealings whatsoever with the Chief Justice on any matter, any $5 million.

“The narration was that, the lawyer charged GHC 300,000 as legal fees from his client. Then, Ogyeedom is now conferring with the lawyer that, there is a friend who can now speak to the Chief Justice for him. Ogyeedom is also now saying that the lawyer informed him that he can now go and speak to the Chief Justice and give him $5 million so that the case will now be ruled in his favour”.

The Old Tafo legislator reckons that, even though CHRAJ must be allowed to probe, the CID will equally do a good job.

“These are two allegations coming from a lawyer and his client. But later, statements from both of them are now clear that they’ve not had any cause to engage the Chief Justice on this particular $5 million”.