Mr. Mensah Thompson, Executive Director of Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA) has intimated that President Akuffo-Addo has no regards for the laws of the country.
Mr. Mensah passed the comment subsequent to President Akuffo-Addo’s dismissal of ASEPA’s petition for the removal of the Chief Justice, Kwasi Anin-Yeboah. President Akuffo-Addo as such described the petition as unwarranted and unmeritorious.
“President Akuffo-Addo has shown that he has absolutely no respect for the laws considering what has been done and the effect of such backlash.”
Mr. Mensah Thompson
In a letter to ASEPA, the President Akuffo-Addo indicated that the allegations against the Chief Justice are not proven by evidence.
According to the President, “the petitioner fails to meet the threshold of proffering sufficiently strong evidence in support of his allegations” and he also “fails to provide any evidence at all, in support of the spurious allegations made against the Chief Justice”.
However, the Executive Director of ASEPA said the opinion of the President should not be taken into account in this case.
During an interview in an Accra based TV station, Mr. Thompson cited Article 146 to back his assertion.
The Article specifies that, “the President, upon receipt of such a petition, must act in consultation with the Council of State to appoint a committee consisting of two Justices of the Supreme Court and three other persons who are not members of the Council of State, nor Members of Parliament, nor lawyers to inquire into the petition and make a recommendation”.
According to the Executive Director of ASEPA, no report from the Council of State has been communicated to him. Therefore, ASEPA is unsettled as to which report the President is basing on, whether it is that of the Council of State or the President’s own report.
“The Council of State did their report, we don’t know the contents of the reports of the Council of State. The President said he was going to apprise himself or he was going to apprise the Council of State with his findings on an investigation he went to do to ensure that they are on the same page. So, if the report that they are reading is actually the report of the Council of State or the report of our own President’s investigation, we do not know.”
Mr. Mensah Thompson
Background
Based on an allegation by Lawyer Kwasi Afrifa, ASEPA which is a Civil Society Organization requested the removal of the Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah claiming that the Chief Justice is unfit to be in office.
Lawyer Kwasi Afrifa alleged that the Chief Justice demanded a $5million-dollar bribe to pass advantageous ruling to his ex-client, Ogyedoom Obranu Kwesi Atta IV.
Afrifa’s allegation was a response to the General Legal Counsel to counter a petition by his aggrieved ex-client on July 8, 2021.
The client claimed he had given $100,000 to Afrifa to get him a favourable verdict in a court case. As a result, he petitioned the General Legal Counsel to order Mr. Afrifa to refund the $100,000, saying the lawyer failed to deliver on his promise.
However, Lawyer Kwasi Afrifa denied all accusations and further asserted that he was petitioned to refund $300,000 in legal fees to enable his client to raise $5 million bribe to be given to the Chief Justice.
The Chief Justice denied the allegation in a letter as of July 12, 2021, signed by the Judicial Secretary which also indicated that he had reported the matter to the police CID for further investigations.
ASEPA then followed its petition to President Akufo-Addo on July 13, 2021, to initiate impeachment proceedings to remove the Chief Justice
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