Three court officials to be prosecuted

Tamale, Sept 13, GNA- The Chief Justice, Mr Justice George K. Acquah on Friday ordered the prosecution of three officials of the Judicial Service for their alleged involvement in financial malfeasance running into 26 million cedis.

Mr Justice Acquah made the order when he opened a one-day workshop for court registrars, clerks and cashiers drawn from the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions, in Tamale.

The three officials are, Nashiru Gariba a Senior Registrar of the Tamale District Court, Abu Issah and Iddi Abdulai, both staff of the Tamale Circuit Court. Mr Kwesi Ainuson, Co-ordinator of Administration and Reform Programme of the Service told newsmen in Tamale that Gariba extorted 1.5 million cedis from a suspect in a murder case to influence the presiding judge.

He said Issah and Abdulai also took unauthorized IOUs of more than 3.9 million cedis and 1.9 million cedis respectively from Mr Fusheni Abubakari the Court's cashier.

Mr Ainuson said the suspects have refunded 15 million cedis of the amount when the deal was detected.

The Workshop, organised by the Judicial Service, has the theme: "Judicial-Statistics and Performance Management for Court Officials". Mr Justice Acquah reiterated his determination to reform the judiciary and rid it of corruption and improve upon its infrastructure and human resource.

He said his administration will improve the staffing position of the courts and ensure that the overstaffed courts are also down sized. He said henceforth, no official of the judiciary will be permitted to give any excuses when being transferred from the South to work in the North, adding: "I will not countenance interference from any quarter in this regard".