Baafuor Akoto influenced Ghana's judicial direction -AG

Nana Akufo Addo, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, on Tuesday eulogised Baafour Osei Akoto, saying his wide influence touched the judicial process of the country.

He said the leader of the pre-independence National Liberation Movement (NLM), by virtue of his famous "Re:Akoto" had sought to give the Supreme Court the power of review which was essential for democratic development.

Baafour Akoto had appealed against his detention in 1961 but lost it. Nana Akufo-Addo was contributing to a statement made by Samson Kwaku Boafo, Ashanti Regional Minister.

The Attorney-General said that error made by the Supreme Court at that time brought the nation the misfortune of keeping the Preventive Detention Act (PDA), which took away fundamental freedoms of the Ghanaian.

"If the Court had upheld the plea of the man, it would have helped immensely, no wonder modern jurists are thinking along those lines," he observed adding that the powers exercised by the Supreme Court to review actions of the executive and the legislature could not be under estimated.

J. H. Mensah, Senior Minister, said Baafuor Akoto loved politics, "even though, he was without formal education, he encouraged people to pursue that career because he believed that the affairs of the nation needed to be managed by dedicated people."

He said, he told his personal tales of horror with humour, adding, "He was never bitter. In one of his tales, he said he heard Dr J.B. Danquah cry in his death row, it was the night of his death, such a thing should not have happened to a man of his stature."

Mensah said: "Those of us who have been to the prisons several times pray that our colleagues here (parliament) will not run the risk of such experiences in their political career."

D.Y Mensah, NDC- Attebubu North, said Baafour Akoto equally represented violence and militancy in the pre-independence political history of Ghana. He said the period that he led the NLM was not a happy one, adding, "it was part of the nation's sordid political history."

"Let's take lessons from that turbulent period and learn to put the national interest before everything," he said.

Baafuor Akoto lived from 22 February 1904 to 3 September 2002. He championed the cause of the pre-independence federalists through the NLM, which often clashed with the unitary-minded Dr Kwame Nkrumah and the Convention People's Party (CPP). He was the stepfather of President John Agyekum Kufuor.