Judge caught in bribery scandal

A money conscious Circuit Court Judge, whose trade mark is to extort money from parties before him, has been caught in a trap pf bribery scandal which can bet be described as broad daylight extortion.

Justice J. B Tandoh was trapped last Monday in his Offinso residence when an undercover journalist from Accra- based Hot FM feigned interest in securing bail for some 16 rioters in the Akomadan chieftaincy dispute who have been remanded into custody by the Offinso Circuit Court presided over by the judge.

Justice Tandoh, who demanded an amount of 20 million cedis to grant bail to the 16 has since honoured his promise as he went to court last Wednesday and granted them bail after the money was paid to him the Monday before by the relatives of the detained rioters.

Emmanuel Duah pretended to be a relative of some of the detained rioters and succeeded in recording the entire bribery aspect on a tape hidden in his pocket.

According to the judge, he should have demanded 30 million cedis for the purposes of granting the bail application, but decided to be considerate because any amount that he was going to take should be shared by him and other officials involved in the case.

He mentioned the Attorney General’s Department as one of the places where he would have to settle people with part of the money and other persons who might have played one role or the other.

Justice Tandoh openly boasted that there was once a ‘wee’ peddling case that came before him, but when the accused wanted to be granted bail and subsequently discharged, he took an amount of 105 million cedis to do as the accused wanted.

He lamented that, out of that amount he only got 8 million cedis as his share after distributing it among cronies at the Attorney General’s Department and others, adding that, even his wife rebuked him by saying, “You should have imprisoned them if this is all the money you received from such a serious and dangerous deal.”

Justice Tandoh demanded that if the relatives of the detained wanted him to discharge them they should be prepared to pay 50 million cedis as bribe to him and then pay additional 10 million cedis, which should be separately prepared in an envelope to bring the total up to 60 million cedis.

As a judge, once you decided to take a bribe you must be wise enough to close all the gaps behind you so that no one could come from behind to see the traces of what you have done, said Justice Tandoh; which explains why a judge should not take the bribe money alone but share with others.

Explaining that in Twi, the Offinso Circuit Court Judge said, it is like carrying a bag of flour with a hole behind, the flour will spread on the ground behind you and will leave traces which could lead to the detection of where the flour finally landed.

He lambasted the police over the manner in which they swindle judges whenever they are used as intermediaries to pay bribes to judges. According to Justice Tandoh when a police man takes a bribe of say 5 million cedis from an accused to be given to the judge he (policeman) gives about 2 million cedis to the judge and pockets the rest, and that annoys the judges.

The judge, he says, is a human and if he wants to see Kufuor he could do so without going through an intermediary, and gave the assurance that , “I can cancel the case if they want me to, I have promised them I won’t fine them at all,” it will be included in the “parcel”.

So as for me, I hate using the police as intermediaries in bribery matters because they are cheats,” Justice Tandoh told those at the gathering.

Meanwhile true to his promise, Justice Tandoh last Wednesday granted bail to the 16 held in custody over the chieftaincy dispute at Akomadan in the Offinso District of the Ashanti region.

They were said to have violently opposed the installation of their clansman as the chief of Akomadan when the newly elected chief was just about swearing the oath of allegiance to the Omanhene of Offinso Traditional Area.

As at time of going to the press last Friday the judge’s phone was off, and he could not be reached for his comments.