Judiciary as Conduit of Political Vengeance: Throw out Ofosu Ampofo Case from Courts of Ghana
Observably, there is no parallax between political vindictiveness against opposing political party executives and the weakness of the courts of Ghana in perpetuating the rotational vengeance.
Historically, the overthrowing of the first president of Ghana being Dr. Kwame Nkrumah did account for the burning of his works, some national properties associated with him were destroyed, his effigies pulled down, his appointees were jailed using the court system where some judges allowed political persuasions to preclude their sense of fairness or justice to all manner of persons irrespective of his or her political linings, or creed or ethnic origin. This national destructive chord of a mistake since 1966 has plagued Ghana till date, where persecution of political opponents by ruling government in cahoot with the skewed judiciary has persisted till date 2021. Although there was a temporary break in political vindictiveness under Prof Mills the then president of Ghana from 2009-2011, and followed by his successor John Dramani Mahama from year 2011 to 2016, the the grace period did elapsed.
Probably the temporary break in persecution of political opponents under president Prof Mills the ‘asomdwe hene’ (literally meaning, king of peace) and continued under John Dramani Mahama might have emanated from the counseling of Prof. Ali Mazrui on his inaugural lecture visit to Ghana in 2004 under the theme, "Human Rights and African Obligations: Moral Universalism and Cultural Relativism".
Interesting at the time of Prof. Mazrui’s inaugural lectureship in Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo was the Foreign Affairs Minister of the nation while Prof. Mills was the then opposition leader of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), as of year 2004.
Unfortunately the relapse period of political parties prosecuting their opposing party in a cyclical vindictive manner came to an end in December 2016 when Nana Addo assumed the presidency of Ghana after being democratically elected in a hotly contested elections in December 2016.
Perplexing of Nana Addo the then Foreign Affairs Minister of Ghana who did facilitate the Prof. Ali Mazrui’s plea of African leaders to show magnanimity towards political opponents, upon ascending the leadership role of Ghana has done the exact opposite of the advice by going after the Chairman and Deputy General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress in the persons of Chairman Ofosu Ampofo and Koku Anyidoho, with the aid of the security system under his manipulation as the Head of State.
Specifically, Ofosu Ampofo who is the chairman of the opposition political party was arrested by the Ghana Police in June 2019 for alleged audio insecurity claims, and sent to court. https://dailyguidenetwork.com/ofosu-ampofo-arrested/
Earlier in March 2018 the then Deputy General Secretary of the opposition party was arrested for comments attributable to historical antecedents of the coup d’etat that overthrew the president of Ghana in 1972 and who was the father of the sitting president Nana Addo as of the time of arrest. He was arrested by the security forces as perceivably manipulated by the president Nana Addo, questioned and it took the intervention of his family, friends, the opposition party members and most especially the opposition leader John Dramani Mahama to have him released after days of incarceration.
Quizzically, the alleged audio recorded case of planned insecurity to be perpetuated in Ghana by the opposition political party chairman is still in court since 2019 after several court hearings and an obvious abuse of privacy rights of the individual. It is commonsensical that purported audio recordings attributed to another person in this day and age of advanced computer generated twisted videos and audios or faking voice and audio content makes identification and ownership of recorded message challenging. However, based on the Ghanaian political norm of vengeance against the opposing political party be it legitimate or illegitimate as perpetrated by the ruling political party and using the judiciary as conduit of exhibiting their hatred, the opposition party chairman Ofosu Ampofo is still in court almost three years after arrest and court hearing with neither an end insight nor ability to proving the authenticity of alleged recorded audio and a follow up capacity to implement the alleged crimes.
Unfortunately the political parties in Ghana have gained control over the judiciary such that the later have become the former’s conduit of perpetuating their vindictive nature against opposition political party leaders.
The overt but strong partisan linings of members of the Ghanaian judiciary cum the favoritism in their appointments to higher courts may be the reason for the judiciary to compromising fairness for cyclical partisan vindictiveness against the opposing political parties as orchestrated by the ruling political party. This presumption of the judiciary is properly captured by Afrobarometer 2020 as,
‘But court officials are widely seen as corrupt and untrustworthy.
▪️More than eight in 10 Ghanaians (85%) say at least “some” judges and magistrates are corrupt, including 40% who say this about “most” or “all” of these court officials.
▪️Fewer than half of respondents say they trust the courts “a lot” (16%) or “somewhat” (32%). https://media.africaportal.org/documents/ab_r8_dispatchno347_high_cost_bias_delays_prevent_ghanaians_from_using_justice_system.pdf
Political influence on judges of Ghana’s Supreme Court in justice delivery is said to be rife in as captured by law lecture Dr. Raymond Atuguba in his research as published https://mobile.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Supreme-Court-judges-rule-on-their-political-leanings-Atuguba-615620
Kweku Ansah-Asare a former Director of the Ghana School of Law did also confirm the skewness in justice delivery based on the appointing authority’s preference in the adjudication of cases before the Supreme Court of Ghana.
Following the logical chronological sequence in relation to the Ofosu Ampofo’s case before the courts, it can be adduced that it is political as he is the chairman of the opposition party, and the motive of the ruling government for prosecuting its opponents by using the partisan oriented judges as perpetrators of its vendetta is inexplicable.
However the needless delay and uncertainties surrounding the quality of evidence is enough for the case to be discharged and struck off court records on grounds of the political magnanimity towards political opponents as adviced by Prof. Ali Mazrui.
It is incumbent that the Ghanaian judiciary need to up their justice delivery practice and cease being the punisher conduit of the ruling government against its opposition political party members for national healing. Unfortunately the era of feudalism as far back as the 15th century when the Lords were prosecutors, jury and executioners in their own court was abandoned into recessiveness by year 1525 or thereabouts after the German peasant revolt against the Lords. https://www.britannica.com/event/Peasants-War
Since the 16th century, it came as a surprise to seeing the Ghanaian Supreme Court in this liberal world of 2016 go out shopping for cases as the Montie trio, drag the culprits to their court, to prosecute them by themselves in their court as judges, and sentenced them to jail as executioners. No court in Ghana is permitted to be an investigator, a prosecutor, a judge and executor in his/her own court and all at the same time, as it compromises justice delivery, but unfortunately that was what the Ghana Supreme Court did exhibit, without anyone questioning. This may be partly the reason there are some of innocent people in Ghanaian jails while the perpetrators of the crimes are walking freely in society and repeating their specialised crimes.
This act by the Supreme Court of Ghana was a serious blot on justice delivery and it has contributed to the decline in the citizens high levels of distrust for the judiciary combined with their high levels of corruption as evidenced by Anas Aremuyaw Anas’ film https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.dw.com/en/ghanaians-call-for-trial-of-corrupt-judges/a-18907990
This article is critiquing the judiciary for reformation and restoration of fairness in the Ghanaian courts for a harmonious society.
Recommendation.
-a) Ofosu Ampofo the chairman of the largest opposition party in Ghana must be freed of all charges and case treated as void.
-b) The jury system of adjudication of justice must be fused with the judge system for a hybridized one for improved fairness in justice delivery.
-c) Politically motivated cases laced with vindictiveness against the opposing political party must be thrown out of court by the hybridized judiciary system in a fast manner following an initial test of political vendetta.
-d) Corruotion penetration tests must be carried out in all courts from Magistrate to Supreme Court on unannounced bases by independently hired consulting firms and their findings be used to reform the judiciary of Ghana and rid it off corrupt practices as cash or gifts in exchange for favourable justice delivery to the highest giver of graft.
-e) Judges ruling be subjected to their political lining assessment and if a defined pattern is noticed the judge under consideration be run through the disciplinary committee or ethics committee of the General Legal Council.
Incremental changes in the Ghaian judiciary would see it redeem its lost glory of fairness delivery.
©️2021 H. Kwame Afaglo (PhD)
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