Ataa Ayi In Parliament
By Daily Guide - Daily Guide General News | Wed, 28 May 2008
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EVEN THOUGH Ayi Aryeetey, alias Ata Ayi, Ghana's most notorious armed robber in recent times, is languishing in jail, his name was so prominent at yesterday's Appointment Committee of Parliament sitting when the judge who sentenced him to 70 years explained why he gave that unusually long period of incarceration.
Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie was among three other Appeals Court judges who appeared before the committee for vetting as the President's nominees for appointment as Supreme Court judges.
The others are Mr. Justice Anin Yeboah, Justice Jones Victor Mawulom Dotse and Ms. Justice Rose Constance Owusu.
Justice Baffoe-Bonnie told the Committee that he deliberately gave Ata Ayi and his accomplices those long years of incarceration to serve as deterrent to others, as reports of armed robbery had dominated the news headlines at that particular period and the whole Ghanaian society was in a desperate need of a solution.
He explained that he took judicial notice of public concern before passing judgment, adding that Ata Ayi and his colleagues had become a menace, which had to be kept away from the rest of society.
He said judges being members of society could not pretend to be so insulated from the rest of society that they did not even know what pertained.
That being the case, it would be wrong to assume that society did not in any way influence court rulings.
He argued that the fact that the nation's prisons were congested did not mean that criminals who had to be jailed be let off the hook.
“Though I am for decongestion, we should be careful not to throw the baby away with the bathwater,” said the former prisons officer-turned judge, whose wife, Patience, is also a prisons officer.
The 52-year old former student of Konongo Odumase Secondary School said it was wrong for anyone to describe him as too young to join the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, as there were others like Mrs. Justice Sophia Akufo and William Atuguba, both of who rose to that position before turning 48.
Justice Azu Crabbe, he said, was appointed straight from the High Court to the Supreme Court, so for him (Baffoe-Bonnie) to be appointed from the Appeals Court just a little after a year was not an aberration.
Justice Baffoe, who has been on the Bench for almost 20 years, named Alban Bagbin, the minority leader in Parliament and Hajia Alima Mahama, Minister for Women and Children's Affairs, both members of the Committee, as a year his juniors at the Law School.
That comment drew laughter from the audience including the committee, sitting in the Sir Emmanuel Quist Conference room.
He was forthright in his position on the death sentence; “I support the death sentence.”
Justice Baffoe-Bonnie said though corruption was in the judiciary, it was exaggerated much more than the reality.
Ms. Rose Constance Owusu, 64, was probably the judge whose forthrightness amazed the committee members as she told them that she had always supported capital punishment and would continue to hold that opinion.
“I will never advocate the abolition of capital punishment as I believe he who kills deserves to die also.”
She cited the Biblical example in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus Christ warned Peter against drawing the sword as “anyone who draws the sword dies by the sword”, to buttress her point that “he who kills should be killed.”
Ms. Owusu, a product of the Cape Coast-based Wesley Girls High School, said it was wrong for people to conclude that the state would be equally culpable of murder just like individual criminals should it sanction execution of criminals. “The state kills in the execution of a lawful order of a court.”
Though committee members asked the lady judge several questions on her trenchant views on capital punishment, she would not budge from her earlier response.
Ms. Owusu, who once returned a box of fish delivered to her house from an unknown source to the Cantonments Police Station, said though judges could be venal as human beings, “there will be no corruption in the judiciary if there are no givers.” Continued
Source: Daily Guide - Daily Guide
Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie was among three other Appeals Court judges who appeared before the committee for vetting as the President's nominees for appointment as Supreme Court judges.
The others are Mr. Justice Anin Yeboah, Justice Jones Victor Mawulom Dotse and Ms. Justice Rose Constance Owusu.
Justice Baffoe-Bonnie told the Committee that he deliberately gave Ata Ayi and his accomplices those long years of incarceration to serve as deterrent to others, as reports of armed robbery had dominated the news headlines at that particular period and the whole Ghanaian society was in a desperate need of a solution.
He explained that he took judicial notice of public concern before passing judgment, adding that Ata Ayi and his colleagues had become a menace, which had to be kept away from the rest of society.
He said judges being members of society could not pretend to be so insulated from the rest of society that they did not even know what pertained.
That being the case, it would be wrong to assume that society did not in any way influence court rulings.
He argued that the fact that the nation's prisons were congested did not mean that criminals who had to be jailed be let off the hook.
“Though I am for decongestion, we should be careful not to throw the baby away with the bathwater,” said the former prisons officer-turned judge, whose wife, Patience, is also a prisons officer.
The 52-year old former student of Konongo Odumase Secondary School said it was wrong for anyone to describe him as too young to join the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, as there were others like Mrs. Justice Sophia Akufo and William Atuguba, both of who rose to that position before turning 48.
Justice Azu Crabbe, he said, was appointed straight from the High Court to the Supreme Court, so for him (Baffoe-Bonnie) to be appointed from the Appeals Court just a little after a year was not an aberration.
Justice Baffoe, who has been on the Bench for almost 20 years, named Alban Bagbin, the minority leader in Parliament and Hajia Alima Mahama, Minister for Women and Children's Affairs, both members of the Committee, as a year his juniors at the Law School.
That comment drew laughter from the audience including the committee, sitting in the Sir Emmanuel Quist Conference room.
He was forthright in his position on the death sentence; “I support the death sentence.”
Justice Baffoe-Bonnie said though corruption was in the judiciary, it was exaggerated much more than the reality.
Ms. Rose Constance Owusu, 64, was probably the judge whose forthrightness amazed the committee members as she told them that she had always supported capital punishment and would continue to hold that opinion.
“I will never advocate the abolition of capital punishment as I believe he who kills deserves to die also.”
She cited the Biblical example in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus Christ warned Peter against drawing the sword as “anyone who draws the sword dies by the sword”, to buttress her point that “he who kills should be killed.”
Ms. Owusu, a product of the Cape Coast-based Wesley Girls High School, said it was wrong for people to conclude that the state would be equally culpable of murder just like individual criminals should it sanction execution of criminals. “The state kills in the execution of a lawful order of a court.”
Though committee members asked the lady judge several questions on her trenchant views on capital punishment, she would not budge from her earlier response.
Ms. Owusu, who once returned a box of fish delivered to her house from an unknown source to the Cantonments Police Station, said though judges could be venal as human beings, “there will be no corruption in the judiciary if there are no givers.” Continued
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