About The Courts,Judges and Fairness

"I have always held this belief that judges in this country are are not fair. They see white and mention blue. How can one be a judge and hold allegiance to a political party. I strongly recommend a clean up exercise of the courts and it must take place now. There is a lot of rot . Any lawyer you speak to even the most corrupt of them all,would give you a hint of what is happening at the courts. All you need to do is to find yourself in the "Good Books" of a judge and that is all. However this state of affairs cannot remain forever. There are two options,either the Chief Justice takes a closer look at herself and weed out the bad ones or the people themselves begin to strategize and draw plans for her removal."
                                                                                            Bright Ayivor ,Accra Polytechnic

"Judges must know the positions they occupy are very sensitive.The courts are also forming a part of the social  fibre. No two people are equal and for that matter,conflicts are likely to occur as we go about our everyday activities. Now if judges decide to steal a verdict for one party who might be guilty of a charge then then is a problem, because very soon we would not recognize them as the people who must mediate in our affairs. People are suffering because of injustice all over the world. Many have been thrown into gaols for crimes they did not commit.Why this unfairness? Come what may the people shall arise one day and the deliberate attempt at keeping them in bondage will be crushed!"
                                                                                     Daniel Assifu (Accra Polytechnic)

"It is rather unfortunate we don't seem to realize what is happening with our judges. Now this is it, the judges are being threatened and blackmailed because of the crimes they committed in connivance with officials of the previous administration.The extent to which these people went and looted our resources is unimaginable and never has this happened in the history of our dear country.Why,even the Chief Justice got some of the state land which was looted so how can expect her to bring sanity into the system. If this administration of President Mills is going to survive given the way things are going,they must hold the judges by their necks and insist on the right things being done rather than listen to the loud mouths calling for independence of the judiciary.Independence for what! The people are collaborating you and you say independence?"
                                                                                              Frederick Adipah (Accra Polytechnic)

I have always been a staunch advocate of the independence of the judiciary, however if one takes a careful look at how the Mpiani and Wereko Brobbey trials went concerning Ghana @50 to celebrate Ghana's independence celebrations,with a clean pair of glasses,you can only come to the conclusion that our courts are under siege. For me the solution to the problem would be to go back to the chieftaincy system.That system did us a lot of good when when it came to settling disputes and delivering justice.Chieftaincy might not be relevant today because of our republican status,but there were some practices of that system we must not throw away."

                                                                                                       Godwin Addae (Accra polytechnic)

"It is common knowledge that every human institution cannot be expected to be perfect.However there are a few things we can do in order to bring sanity into the judiciary.The political interference must stop with immediate effect.All the things we were taught about separation of powers do not make meaning any longer.I accept there must be some sort of collaboration amongst the various arms of government but the interference is becoming juust too much.A system must be put in place such that parties in a case would not be able to determine which judge would be sitting on their cases, although i do not know whether that will also work."

                                                                                                       Ernest Asare (Accra Polytechnic)

"I guess the issue of the unfairness of the judiciary is coming up now because there has been a change in government. Every government would want a judiciary it can manipulate and i believe the previous administrations also wanted it that way. However, if this government is losing its cases before these judges because they are upholding the rule of law,then fair enough. But if they are putting up this behaviour because of their assumed allegiance to the previous regime,then they better think again because that would not be accepted."

                                                                                              Timothy Eshun (Accra Polytechnic)