The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has demanded the immediate withdrawal of warrants authorising two High Court judges to conduct full criminal trials during the legal vacation.

The party said the decision by Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie to issue the warrants to Justices Achibonga and Kocuvie-Tay was inconsistent with the established practice governing vacation courts and had disproportionately affected cases involving persons associated with the NPP.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, August 11, 2026, the NPP said 29 courts were currently sitting as vacation courts, but their work was traditionally limited to motions and urgent interlocutory applications.

It questioned why only two courts had been authorised to conduct substantive criminal trials during the vacation.

“The Chief Justice has failed to answer one simple question. Why only these two courts, and why only these cases?” the party said.

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The NPP said criminal cases involving serious offences, including murder, rape, narcotics and armed robbery, had been adjourned until the end of the legal vacation.

“If the vacation can pause the trial of a murder suspect, why can it not pause the trial of political opponents of the Government?” the statement questioned.

The party said lawyers representing the affected accused persons had informed the Chief Justice on August 5 that they would be unavailable during the vacation and had requested that the warrants be withdrawn.

According to the NPP, the Ghana Bar Association subsequently wrote to the Chief Justice on August 10, reminding him that vacation courts do not ordinarily conduct substantive trials and that proceedings should not fairly continue where defence counsel had notified the court of their unavailability.

The party said the consequences of the decision became apparent in court on Tuesday when one of the judges conducting the vacation trial adjourned a matter for less than a week and directed the accused person to secure a new lawyer or personally cross-examine a prosecution witness.

The NPP described the directive as an infringement of the accused person's right to a fair trial.

“Article 19(2)(f) of the 1992 Constitution guarantees every accused person the right to defend himself by counsel of his own choosing."

“What happened today was not case management. It was the strangulation of the fair trial rights of a citizen, and it flows directly from the Chief Justice’s warrants,” it said.

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The party also accused the Chief Justice of selectively facilitating the continuation of cases involving NPP personalities, citing the recent trial and conviction of Ashanti Regional NPP Chairman Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, as an example of what it described as undue haste.

It further accused the Chief Justice of acting in apparent concert with the Attorney-General's agenda against NPP personalities.

“The Judiciary must never become an annex of the Office of the Attorney-General,” the NPP stated.

The party has consequently called on the Chief Justice to “immediately withdraw the warrants for vacation trials” and allow the affected cases to resume when the legal term reopens.

It also demanded that the ultimatum issued to the accused person be rescinded and urged the Chief Justice to heed the concerns raised by the Ghana Bar Association.

The NPP said it remained committed to the rule of law and judicial independence and would “resist, by every lawful means, the weaponisation of the courts against our members and against any Ghanaian.”

Read the statement below







MRA/AM

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