The Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA) has applauded former Deputy Attorney-General, Dr. Dominic Ayine for standing by his c
The Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA) has applauded former Deputy Attorney-General, Dr. Dominic Ayine for standing by his comment that have caused Chief Justice His Lordship Kwasi Anin-Yeboahseen to drag him to the General Legal Council (GLC).
The former deputy AG in the last few weeks has been hot after the CJ took him on for comments made during a programme organised by the Ghana Center for Democratic Governance (CDD-Ghana) on the 2020 election petition hearing.
Justice Anin Yeboah accused Dr. Dominic Ayine of stating that “the Supreme Court’s failure to apply the rules of procedures as well as the consistent and continuous dismissal of the petitioners’ applications or reliefs were the basis of his assertion.”
While many thought Dr. Ayine will eat the humble pie and apologize for his comments, he has today taken an entrenched position.
“With all due respect to His Lordship, the Chief Justice, I wish to state that I stand by the opinion I expressed at the said roundtable discussion. I am firmly convinced that the opinion I expressed neither imperiled the independence of the judiciary nor did it cause any actual or potential harm to the reputation of the individual justices nor did it cause any actual or potential harm to the reputation of the individual justices who sat on the case,” Dr. Ayine has said in an eleven-page response.
This, ASEPA Executive Director Mensah Thompson has commended the former deputy Attorney-General for his posture.
According to him, the move is a win for democracy and will clear the notion that the Judiciary is beyond criticism.
“I am happy that Dr. Ayine did not bow out and offer some de-spirited apology just for the undue clemency of these judicial tyrants but is standing his grounds and standing by his very warranted criticisms of the Judiciary especially in the just-ended election petition hearing,” part of a statement from Mensah Thompson reads.
It adds, “I am even more elated that this case is now going to travel its full length and give us a real test of the law so that we can quench this “Adolf Hitler ” ego of the Ghanaian Judiciary once and for all!.”
Meanwhile, the ASEPA boss insists that Justice Anin Yeboah must tell Ghanaians which law of statute bars citizens from pointing out the biases of a trial Judge during or after a trial.
Below is the full statement from ASEPA:
Mensah Thompson of ASEPA writes…
THANK AYINE FOR NOT BOWING OUT, ITS A GREAT PRECEDENT-ASEPA
I have followed the conversation of the Chief Justice’s report of Dr. Dominic Ayine to the GLC over his comments at the CDD program.
Today, we have been served with a response from the learned Dr. Dominic Ayine and I feel very proud as a Ghanaian.
Often than not people who have criticized the Judiciary and have been hauled before the GLC or the Court for contempt go and pitifully eat back their own words just for the mercy of the Court.
This trend has been quite a headache for some of us who feel the Judiciary is not beyond reproach.
ASEPA has mounted several Advocacies for Justice Administration in Ghana to be more transparent and Accountable yet very little has been done in this regard.
We have always held the view that the three arms of Government all derives their powers from the sovereign will of the people of Ghana as enshrined in our Constitution.
So the powers of all the three arms of Government are administered in the name of the people of Ghana, and that is the basis of the accountability that we demand from all the three arms of Government and none of the three arms is beyond this basic accountability standard.
You cannot administer powers in the name of the people of Ghana and expect not to be accountable to the people or expect the people to keep quiet when things go wrong.
How the Judiciary came to the naive conclusion that Citizens can only criticize the Executive and the Legislature but cannot criticise the Judiciary is the 9th wonder of the 4th Republic.
I am happy that Dr. Ayine did not bow out and offer some de-spirited apology just for the undue clemency of these judicial tyrants but is standing his grounds and standing by his very warranted criticisms of the Judiciary especially in the just ended election petition hearing.
I am even more elated that this case is now going to travel its full length and give us a real test of the law so that we can quench this “Adolf Hitler ” ego of the Ghanaian Judiciary once and for all!
The complainant in this matter must be able to tell us which part of the 1992 constitution exempted the Judiciary from the rights of (freedom of expression) accrued to all Ghanaian Citizens under the Constitution ooo yoo…
Not only that, Anin Yeboah must also be able to tell us which law of statute bars citizens from pointing out the obvious biases of a trial Judge during or after a trial ooo…yoo
To those of us who love drama…let the action begin!
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