Attorney-General receives more flak

A cross-section of people, including some legal experts, interviewed in Takoradi last Tuesday in connection with the ongoing legal battle between the Attorney-General (A-G) and Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, the former Chief Executive of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), have called on President Kufuor to either sack Nana Akufo-Addo or force him and the Chief Justice to resign honourably.

According to them, they are demanding the resignation of the two government officials because, as they put it, they have ridiculed the NPP government judging from the way they went about the Tsatsu case at both the Supreme Court and the High Court, which has now made Tsatsu a national hero.

One of the interviewees, Mr Asamoah, a trader at the Takoradi central market told Chronicle during the interview that Nana Akufo-Addo has been and would always be his idol but added that he is disappointed about the way Nana allowed Tsatsu to dribble past him through legal technicalities to score such a major political goal against the government. He contended that after Nana had lost the first battle against Tsatsu at the Supreme Court, he should have waited for the judges to give reasons behind their decision that the Fast Track High Court is unconstitutional before sending the man to another court to face trial.

According to Asamoah, a staunch supporter of the NPP, if the A-G had exercised patience instead of rushing Tsatsu to another court, he would have detected the elementary mistake that he made which the accused exploited to his advantage.

Nana Appiah-Kubi, a businessman, on his part told Chronicle that the A-G as a respected legal luminary should have sat down to weigh the pros and cons of the Supreme Court ruling after the judges had given their reason before deciding on what charge to prefer against Tsatsu at the High Court. He said the blunder that occurred at the High Court came to him as no surprise because the A-G did not take his time to study the situation before rushing the accused to another court.

Some of the legal experts who spoke to Chronicle on condition of anonymity also said though Tsatsu made a mistake by agreeing to guarantee a loan to another company without the knowledge of the GNPC board, it does not call for his prosecution since the A-G still has the chance of suing the said company to recover the money or properties of the company.

The A-G can also rope in Tsatsu in the cause of the suit or use the normal administrative way to punish him, one of them said, adding that even after taking the accused to court, the A-G should have sat down with his subordinates to thoroughly study the charge sheet to ascertain whether legal technicalities were hiding somewhere.

The legal experts also condemned the press conference called by the A-G immediately after the Supreme Court ruling where he disclosed that Tsatsu was going to be put before another court the following day at a time when the judges had not made known to the public the reasons why the ruled that the Fast Track High Court is unconstitutional.

According to them, it is the A-G who is supposed to advise the government on legal matters, but for him to wait for the whole President of the Republic to give an order that all prosecutions against Tsatsu should cease till the Supreme Court gives its reasons is, to them, a serious indictment, which calls for the immediate resignation of the A-G.

On the part of the Chief Justice, they said he must also resign because he should not have empanelled all but one of the Supreme Court judges to sit on the Tsatsu case. According to them, he should have empanelled seven and later add two, which in this case, would include himself when one of the parties apply for a review.

According to them, should the Chief Justice keep on doing this, it could mean government would have to keep appointing new judges to the Supreme Court if a dissatisfied party applies for a review, which to them is very bad.