By Aaron Okyere

The NDC has left its pot unwatched so its food now burns as the opposition NPP,
the ultimate opportunists, have seized the initiative to poison the minds of
judges against them.

Exercising their constitutional right to free speech, NDC members and
supporters, including pro-NDC newspapers, have slammed the largely pro-NPP
judiciary for the bogus judgements that they have been passing in high profile
cases since the Mills government came into office.

Realising that Ghanaians would no longer accept these bogus judgements, the NPP,
who ironically boast of being the exponents of free speech have decided to
poison the minds of judges, especially the few who are independent, by claiming
that the criticisms are putting their lives in danger. And, what better
reference to use to turn the judges against the NDC than the unfortunate murder
of the three high court judges on June 30, 1982.

The first to lead in the poisoning of the minds of the judges is the
Editor-in-Chief of The Ghanaian Observer, Egbert Faibille Jnr.

Under the banner headline NDC PUT JUDGES IN DANGER in the Monday, 16th August,
2010 edition of his paper, he claims that the paper has “…stumbled on
information that some members of the judiciary are expressing disquiet and angst
over the posturing of some of the NDC leaders and radio commentators over the
legal losses the government has sustained in court in recent times”
Egbert gleefully refers to the murder of the judges in 1982;“The judges know
what the NDC is capable of doing from 1982 when the three High Court judges,
K.A. Agyepong, Cecilia Koranteng –Addow and F.P. Sarkodie…were abducted from
their homes and murdered in a most cowardly manner by agents of the PNDC led by
L/Cpl. Amedeka”.

The sinister motive behind Egbert Faibille’s publication is clear to even the
undiscerning; referring to the sordid act, he hopes, will turn the hearts of
independent judges against the NDC.
Twenty-Four hours after this distasteful publication, Hon. Kwame Osei-Prempeh,
an NPP MP and a Deputy Attorney-General in the erstwhile Kufuor government went
ballistic on Citi FM and claimed that the NDC, by some of the comments its
members have made, may be planning to deal with some judges the way the three
were murdered in 1982.
Another twenty four hours later and yet another NPP apparatchiki, a retired
Supreme Court Judge, Justice Prof A K P Kludze comes claiming that judges in the
country may soon become targets of physical harm and killings as happened in
1982. Hear the lousy and poisonous comments of this NPP apparatchiki of a
retired judge:
“When a PNDC or an NDC man talks about cleaning the judiciary, you remember
in1982 that some of them were eliminated, physical elimination is one way of
cleaning the judiciary. When you use that word it can spread terror in the minds
of some judges…I am afraid it is very frightening it looks like we are going
back into the days of Nkrumah or the PNDC.”
Clearly, the reference to the murder of the three high court judges in 1982,
which has nothing to do with the NDC, is meant to poison the minds of judges
against the party to make them continue to deliver a particular kind of
judgement when the cases involve leading members of the NPP.
A senior judge, speaking to the Daily Post’ yesterday slammed the reference to
the unfortunate incident of 1982 by NPP fanatics saying that it is a “devilish
act as it does not take into account the pains of the close relatives of those
who were murdered when they are reminded of the dastardly act”
“Those who are a danger to our infant democracy are the ones who turn judges
into political activists and Ghanaians have the right to criticize them” he
said.
As expected, the Ashanti Regional branch of the Ghana Bar Association, an
association that has become the legal advisory wing of the NPP claim they are
going on strike in protest against the criticisms being leveled against certain
members of the judiciary.
Stay tuned