Does the change in political positions and judicial composition affect the course of justice?

Manasseh Awuni asked the poignant above question towards the end of his thesis “Will Mahama and NDC gets justice if they go to court?” – Ghanaweb 12-2020.

Manasseh in his analysis quoted conversations on social media to the fact that NDC would not get justice even if they have a strong case. This perception is and in recent cases involving the “behaviour and attitude” of the Electoral Commissioner and some its leadership towards the main opposition party, the NDC, and the swift dismissals of cases they brought before the apex court have thrown doubt in the minds of its supporters that the court has “become another tool” of a government that is perceived to be corrupt beyond any doubt and behaves as if they live on another planet. Similar disgusting remarks were made against Mr Martin K. B. Amadu, the former Special Prosecutor when he exposed the rot of “Agyapa Royalties”, a scam set up to defraud Ghana’s income from her gold royalties by a small bunch of individuals within the NPP leadership.

Indeed, as Manasseh explained in his thesis, that a member of Parliament, made a disparaging remark about a high court judge, contents so disgusting that this writer cannot repeat it in this submission, yet as everyone knows the judge in question was hurriedly transferred and the case was more or less slowed down to the degree that it has become clear that this particular member of parliament might get away with such serious allegations of felony charges.

There have been instances where operatives of this NPP government have become a law unto themselves where citizens have been brutalised and to some degree killed as was witnessed in the just ended elections of December 7, 2020. Before the elections a so called “security service personnel” openly beat up a Warrant Officer of the Ghana Armed Forces, handcuffed him and took him away in front of motorists and passers-by, which generated a lot of discussions on social media and was highlighted by the opposition NDC, yet this government of NPP brushed it aside as if it is not a serious incident of brutality. These and other numerous cases have been recorded and, in some instances, filmed by citizenry to buttressed the sort of autocratic state Ghana finds herself in, a rule of fear by the dreaded NPP Militias embedded into the security services. The National Secretary of NDC, Mr Johnson Aseidu Nketsia recently referred to the Inspector General of Police as “The Leader of NPP Vigilant Militia, the dreaded Delta Force and Invincible Forces embedded into the security services and have been going around the country beating and shooting people with impunity. Although the statement by Mr Nketsia may or may not be true, however there are many examples supported by recorded videos evidence to that effect.

Apart from the above, the level of governmental theft and corruption which has been exposed by various actors and individuals is such that in any Western country these would have generate public outcry and investigations mounted to put the culprits before the law courts, but no, not in Ghana, where corruption by this NPP government has been legitimatized as normal. Those including Anas Aremeyaw Anas, Manasseh Awuni among others who have exposed corruption live in fear and constantly have to hide to evade being assassinated or killed by shadowy individuals believed to be operatives of the NPP National Security people (The Invincible and Delta Forces Militia embedded into the Security Services). Some of these individuals were behind the Awayaso West Wogon by elections a few years back. Like Anas and Mr Martin Amadu, Manasseh was scandalised and called a whole lot of names by NPP members, including some of its parliamentarians and leadership. Some sections of the population think it was these same people who were behind the killing of Ahmed Saule to put fear into investigative journalists in the country, to the degree that Ghana’s foremost Investigative Journalist, Mr Kevin Taylor, has to relocate to United States in order to ply his trade.

Mr Martin Amadu, the former Special Prosecutor, when he exposed the Agyapa corruption and other cases of corruption in this NPP government, was subjected to a barraged of insults and a death threat by the NPP National Youth Leader, again this NPP government under Nana Akufo Addo did not acted until Mr Amadu openly wrote that should anything happens to him, the President, Nana Akufo Addo must be held responsible.

Thus, the above and numerous others clearly formed the opinion of the opposition NDC that they would not get the justice that they would require from the Supreme Court of Ghana because that court has been packed by NPP sympathisers. As Manasseh noted, this is very dangerous and put the country on a timed bomb that could go off any time and destroyed the hard-won peace under the 4^th Republic.

Many have argued that the make up of the current parliament should be a check on any future infractions that may or may not occur and thus would be a check on executive abuse. Under the last 4 years NPP government, some ministers including the Housing Minister and the Finance Minister became so pompous and outright rude that they thought they were more human than the rest of the citizenry, and indeed Ghanaians took note of such blatant superiority. As a matter of fact, the Finance Minister refused to be interviewed with his counterpart of the opposition NDC and would be interviewed alone on most talk shows before that same questions are then put to the NDC Ranking member for Finance and other panellists, just like in Animal Farm novel.

Ghana in this 21^st Century must ensure Judiciary corruption should not cropped into the national discourse where “some judges are seen to be corrupt”, a situation that must be banished to the past and courts are seen as a place where one goes to seek justice and justice dispensed in favour of the rich and powerful in society and against the poor. Ghana is beyond such nonsense and dangerous trajectory.

To conclude, Manasseh in his analysis clearly stated that “ We should get to a point that if a party loses a case in court, public opinion will not sway towards the theory that they lost because of who they were up against and not on the merit of their case” Ghanaweb Manasseh 12.12.20.