Legal Expert Cautioned Against Discretionary Use Of In-Camera Hearing

A legal luminary, Attah Akyea, has cautioned that the Justice Georgina Wood Committee could become safe heaven for top brass criminals within the national security apparatus, especially when some witnesses have already started citing national security concerns to demand that they are heard in camera.

He warned that if the committee fails to exercise its discretionary powers responsibly, the much needed hard evidence and testimony that should come before it would be suppressed.

The legal guru's caution comes in the wake of escalating reports that some top Police Chiefs are citing national security concerns and the sensitive nature of their various offices to demand that they are either heard in camera or not hauled before the committee for cross examination over their alleged complicity in the unfolding "Cocaine Bribery Scandal".

The Accra-based private Legal Practitioner told in an interview with CITI NEWS said that the Committee should look out for people who would want to hide behind the mask of national security to cover-up their scandalous faces.

It is recalled that on Tuesday, Superintendent Edward Tabiri of the Ghana Police Service, one of the top Police Officers implicated in the "Cocaine Bribery Scandal" demanded that he should be heard in camera because he was about to give a damning evidence that has national security implications.

Lawyer Attah Akyea told CITI NEWS that it is the sole reserve of the Committee Chairperson to decide on which persons should be heard in camera or otherwise, stating that it should never be the left to witnesses appearing before the Committee to decide which treatment they should be accorded.