General News of Thursday, 16 September 2010

Source: peacefmonline

Any idiot can file complaint - Kofi Adams

Special aide to Ex-President Rawlings, Mr. Kofi Adams says he is flabbergasted at the rate at which civil society and some religious organisations, have become so “interested in an idiomatic expression” used by Dr. Kwabena Adjei regarding the cleansing of the judiciary and has indirectly described the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), instigators of the NDC Chair’s police invitation as “idiots”.

Mr. Adams believes the media attention given to the issue is indeed superfluous.

Ghana Police Service invited NDC Chair, Dr. Kwabena Adjei to the CID headquarters for questioning following a complaint lodged at the Nima Divisional Police headquarters by opposition pressure Group AFAG for the immediate arrest and possible prosecution of the NDC Chairman.

"People in the judiciary can make a very good case look very bad. If the judiciary is bias, if the judiciary has made its mind in one direction, not even Jesus Christ who is appointed as the Attorney General can change things...We will clean it if they don’t take steps to clean it. We will clean it and let everybody everywhere blame us for interfering in the judiciary and we will take them on," Dr Kwabena Adjei stated.

Asked how the cleaning would be done, he responded “that one at the right time, you will see how we'll clean it. There are many ways to kill a cat," he added.

But speaking on X-Fm, an Accra-based private radio station on Wednesday, the Deputy General Secretary of the NDC who was outraged at the turn of events recalled comments passed by former Chairman of the PURC, Kwame Pianim that “any idiot can become a flag bearer”, and posited that “per our constitution, any idiot can” also file “a complaint.”

In apparent reference to the pressure group, Mr. Adams said after an “idiot” filed a complaint, the police were enjoined to “listen to the person against whom the complaint” had been made.

According to him, people would definitely want to know from AFAG whether “judges are cats.”

“…he (Dr Kwabena Adjei) was using an idiom to put through an expression that look there is so much corruption…a clean and a transparent judiciary that brings about equity in their works is what will help this country grow...Freedom...can only thrive when there is justice and justice cannot thrive in the midst of corruption…the judiciary is never independent when it comes to citizenry. Whatever they do, they do so for and on behalf of the citizenry, and we have every right to at every time to criticize what they do and to make sure that they do what is expected of them...

...It is in the performance of their duty that one arm of gov't must not interfere. It doesn't mean that we as citizens or civil society have no right to call on them to clean their system. That is why i'm disappointed that many institutions including even the religious bodies who should be fighting for fairness, for equity...,are rather more interested in an idiomatic expression of killing the cat and condemning Dr. Adjei and the NDC. I'm really disappointed,” Kofi Adams said.