Independence of the Judiciary is shared responsibility - Adu-Gyamfi

Accra, March 18, GNA - Mr Paul Adu-Gyamfi, a legal practitioner has observed that ensuring an independent judiciary and rule of law under the 1992 Constitution is a shared responsibility. He noted that because by their vocation judges could not defend themselves, it was therefore left with lawyers and true lovers of democracy to rise up wherever the Judiciary was viciously and maliciously attacked and scandalised by officialdom and those in position.

"Our silence would make us unwilling accomplices and our condemnation of all forms of threat to the Judiciary should be swift, total and absolute in no uncertain terms," Mr Adu-Gyamfi added. Mr Adu-Gyamfi made the observation when presenting a paper on the topic: 93Judicial Independence at the Crossroads," during the Law Week celebration of Ghana School of Law in Kumasi.

He advised the Law Students and members of the Ghana Bar Association to organise Regional Forum on the Independence of the Judiciary because their pious statements declaring support for the issue would not be enough.

Mr Adu-Gyamfi, a Former National President of the GBA asked the Association to seek the support of other civil societies by sensitising them on the threat to the country's fledging democracy. "If lawyers fail to defend the institutions established under the constitution, we would not be able to plead alibi in future," he noted.