Member of Parliament (MP) for Keta, Kwami Dzudzorli Gakpey has intimated that he is confident the Private Members Bill seeking reforms of the Ghana Legal Council (GLC) will attract bi-partisan support to receive the full approval of Parliament.
Mr. Gakpey explained that the Bill will have bi-partisan support because both leaders of the groups are supporting the admission on the 499 law students.
“First of all, who raised the issue? It was the deputy majority leader who raised it and we all supported it. So, I know that it’s going to be bi-partisan”.
Kwami Dzudzorli Gakpey
According to him, the posture of the GLC not admitting these students is an act of injustice and justifies the reason why Parliament is there to correct it. He noted that the Bill if passed, will ensure that the Ministry of Education is made to have oversight responsibility of the Ghana School of Law.
“You disqualify people based on your own standards you have set. We have entry requirements and 50% is the pass mark and over 499 people have passed and you are saying you do not have space to contain them. That is what we are saying is injustice”.
Kwami Dzudzorli Gakpey
His comments follow the 449 aggrieved law students who were denied admission into the Ghana School of Law.
There will be a Buy-in on Bill
Touching on Parliament’s move towards deciding on the Private Member Bill, Mr. Gakpe indicated that there will be a ‘Buy-in’ because the issue has been raised and Parliament is working in regards to that. He also indicated that they will push for the bill to avoid a monarchy-like system of the law school.
“Definitely we will have buy-in. Because we don’t want the wrong thing to be done where it will be like a monarchy where few privileged people would benefit or where your relative who is a judge or lawyer should benefit. We don’t want to turn the law school into a monarchy”.
Kwami Dzudzorli Gakpey
Lawyers should move to other regions
Mr. Gakpey then indicated that, Accra is not the only place where lawyers will be needed and as such more have to be admitted so they can work in other regions. He added that most of the lawyers are in Accra whereas in some regions there are not many lawyers.
“Even in my region Ho, there are not much lawyers or office not to talk about Upper East, Upper West”.
Kwami Dzudzorli Gakpey
Touching on instances where they refuse to move to other regions, he stated that if all of them are in Accra and are not getting jobs, they will move to where available jobs are. He added that the lawyers need to provide that service to the people in the other regions.
“I know some lawyers who have offices in Ho and Aflao but they are doing well with regards to the legal profession. For me, if you produce more, it will be available for you to have choices. It depends on your practice and how you are working. And then it is a market, so if you sell yours, people will buy”.
Kwami Dzudzorli Gakpey
