Ataa Ayi In Parliament

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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.”

Mr. Justice Anin Yeboah, Justice of the Court of Appeal and member of the Ghana Judges and Magistrates Association, called for a 50% allocation in the internally generated funds of the judiciary to improve failing infrastructure and logistics.

Mr. Yeboah voiced concern over the impending vacuum of Supreme Court judges that would occur should Parliament not sanction a review of applicants to the judiciary, adding that even recently, some members of the Supreme Court were automatically nominated to avoid a constitutional crisis.

The Justice of the Court of Appeal revealed that the institutions and tribunals which existed to support the High Court in Britain, dealing with the likes of compensation claims, freed up much needed resources and reduced court backlogs, the very challenges that Ghana faces which would be alleviated by increased funding.

The Justice of the Court of Appeal spoke at length on capital punishment and judicial sentencing but refused to be drawn into the debate on the law of causing Financial Loss to the State, citing a conflict of interest as he had presided over some of the cases.

He admitted that corruption was still prevalent in the judicial system but argued that it was a challenge faced by many governments and that the priority lay in educating Ghanaians that justice was possible without intimidation or bribery.

Mr. Justice Jones Dotse, Justice of the Court of Appeal, joined Mr Yeboah in urging Parliament to immediately increase financial allocation to the judiciary to enable it function more efficiently.

He said the Judiciary was the most important arm of government but its image was becoming tarnished as justice was dispensed from dilapidated buildings, adding that the situation had further deteriorated to such an extent that judges were transported from alternative towns to preside over cases outside their districts.

Mr. Dotse went on to deny Mr Yeboah's claim that corruption was prevalent in the judicial system, saying that it was an 'issue of rarity' and that the Ghana Integrity Initiative was functioning to abolish it completely.

The Judge, grilled on judges' minimal use of women's and children's rights conventions by the Minister for Women and Children's Affairs, Hajia Alima Mahama, cited provisions in international treaties and resolutions that were utilized frequently as they were more effective than the provisions in the constitution.

By Sylvanus Nana Kumi & Rhona Murray