The National Democratic Congress has strongly accused the Supreme Court of Ghana of biases following the latter’s decision to prioritize the hearing of a case filed by Rockson-Nelson Etse K. Dafeamekpor over another case filed by a private legal practitioner, Richard Dela Sky.
The party in a statement issued by its General Secretary, Fifi Fiavi Kwetey expressed deep concern and condemned what it perceived as a deliberate attempt by the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice to favour the ruling New Patriotic Party’s administration led by President Akufo-Addo.
Mr Kwetey, recounting the crux of the matter, stated that Richard Dela Sky filed his case challenging the constitutionality of the Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2024, nearly two weeks before Mr Dafeamekpor filed his case challenging the constitutionality of recent ministerial nominations by the President.
He noted that despite this timeline, the Supreme Court, under the purview of the Chief Justice, scheduled Mr Dafeamekpor’s case for an expedited hearing while apparently delaying or neglecting to list Mr Sky’s case for a hearing altogether.
“Yet, for some strange reasons, the case of Hon. Rockson Dafeamekpor which was last in time to be filed, has been hurriedly listed for hearing, while that of Richard Dela Sky which predated the Dafeamekpor case by two weeks, has not been listed for hearing at all. This is even though, no application for abridgement of time, has been filed by any of the parties in the Dafeamekpor case”.
Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, NDC’s General Secretary
According to Mr Kwetey, the conduct of the Chief Justice is a smack of selective treatment and a concerted effort by the judiciary to aid the ruling government’s agenda.
Judicial Impartiality
Furthermore, the National Democratic Congress’s statement asserted that the action by the Chief Justice goes a long way to undermine public confidence in the judiciary and raises serious questions about the impartiality and integrity of the Chief Justice.
The party’s General Secretary, Fifi Fiavi Kwettey posited that the Chief Justice, as the head of the judiciary is required by the constitution of the country and the oath she swore to uphold fairness and balance, serving the interests of the state above those of any particular political party or government.
He warned against what the opposition party perceive as the growing influence of the executive over the judiciary, suggesting that the Chief Justice’s actions may be contributing to a perception of judicial subservience to the ruling government.
Moreover, the National Democratic Congress pointed to previous instances where cases brought against the government by opposition parties have allegedly been sidelined or delayed in the Supreme Court.
The statement cited the example of a case filed by some Members of Parliament of the opposition party challenging the constitutionality of the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) Bill, which according to the party has yet to be listed for hearing despite being filed in 2022.
Responding to what the statement described as a worrying trend of event, Mr Kwetey called for immediate rectification of what could only be described as a “travesty of justice”.
He also called for a reevaluation of the Supreme Court’s scheduling practices to ensure fairness and transparency in the discharge of its constitutional mandate.
He concluded the statement by stating that as the political tradition that birthed the country’s fourth republican democracy and the 1992 Constitution, the opposition National Democratic Congress is extremely concerned about what it considers as the “biased” handling of political cases by the Chief Justice.
Mr Kwetey stressed that while the Constitution of Ghana vests discretionary powers in the Chief Justice in the discharge of her administrative duties over the judiciary, it is also incumbent on her to ensure that such discretionary powers are not exercised “arbitrarily, capriciously and whimsically”.
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