Judiciary Has Been 'Charitable' With Atuguba

A private legal practitioner has said the reaction by the Chief Justice and Supreme Court Judges to Prof Raymond Atuguba's controversial research has not been as severe as it should have been.

According to Yaw Oppong, considering that the yet-to-be-published findings could taint the image of the Judiciary, he expected harsher words from the Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo, and the revered judges when the researcher presented aspects of the research at an event recently.

The study found that the voting patterns of judges of the apex court are influenced by the political party that appointed them.

Justice Jones Dotse has said the study was an insult to the judges, while the Chief Justice, Justice Sophia Akuffo, described it as alien to Ghana’s political and social environment.

Yaw Oppong also suggests that because Prof Atuguba’s research was more of an audit of past cases, he should have adhered to the convention of any audit process: present the findings before going public with them.

- Prof Raymond Atuguba
He believes the least Prof Atuguba could have done was to present the full research to the Judiciary.

Yaw Oppong spoke on Adom FM’s Burning Issues programme, Monday.

Professor Raymond Atuguba has come under heavy criticism, particularly from members of the judiciary, after a PowerPoint presentation of the salient portions of this study at the GIMPA Law Conference.

The Associate Professor at the University of Ghana School of Law stated that some 100 political cases analysed supported the fact that for the past 25 years, Supreme Court Judges have voted along the lines of the political disposition of their appointing authority.

He revealed that 14 out of 22 National Democratic Congress (NDC) appointees to the Supreme Court have given judgment in favour of the NDC.

But that did not sit well with the Chief Justice Justice, who refuted the claims and warned Prof Atuguba against importing alien research into Ghana.

Contributing to the discussions, a renowned constitutional lawyer and a Senior Lecturer at Ghana School of Law, Maxwell Opoku-Agyemang, also called on Prof Atuguba to publish the details of his paper.

“He should publish the full details of his research to clear the minds of the public about the respected arm of government,” Opoku-Agyemang said.

“I’m patiently waiting for the full details of the said 100 cases Atuguba used as samples in preparing his research” he stressed.

Apart from Lawyer Opoku-Agyemang, a former CHRAJ boss, Emile Short, has also urged Raymond Atuguba to publish damning research.

He said the publication of the entire work will help in critiquing the academic research constructively.