- The Madina Member of Parliament hit back at the Ghana Bar Association’s (GBA) condemnation of some statements he made suggesting that judges were politically motivated in the discharge of their work.
- Xavier Sosu while condemning the association for what he described as its failure to safeguard the country’s democracy noted, “I stand by my statement any day, any time.”
Joseph Dindiok Kpemka, a former deputy Attorney General has said Francis-Xavier Sosu was reckless in his response to a caution by the Ghana Bar Association (GBA).
He maintains that the legislator is endangering his profession with such comments and asked for the Madina MP to retract and apologise to the GBA.
“It is (Sosu’s comments) absolutely needless. It is needless because you see, the body that is responsible for the meeting of lawyers, sharing of ideas of lawyers and providing leadership for lawyers in the country is that GBA.
“…That’s why we elect our leaders to serve certain tenure after which we elect new leaders. So, quite clearly if they find that there’s any comment or conduct by any person, if you’re a lawyer and they find that your comment has the tendency of derailing our democratic dispensation which has the tendency of bringing the Judiciary into a state of disrepute and public ridicule, they ought to draw your attention so that subsequently you can amend your ways,” Kpemka said on The Big Bulletin on Tuesday.
Reckless comments
“I have to say that his outburst among the least is reckless and yes [endangering his profession]. Again, the conduct is reckless and has the tendency of undermining our very democracy. If a person of that calibre, an honourable member of parliament who is a lawyer make such utterances and the less enlightened people hear some things, they can take conducts to levels that you cannot even imagine”, he stated.
Eat humble pie
According to Kpemka, Sosu should eat a humble pie and apologise for his ‘reckless’ comments.
“As I’ve said, his comments are over the bar and he should just be humble enough to say that ‘upon second thought, I went over the bar and I should not have said some of the things that I’ve said.’ I am calling on him to retract some of the things that he said and apologise and we move on,” he added.
Listen to the full interview below:
Xavier Sosu vs GBA
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for the Madina Constituency, Francis-Xavier Sosu, has hit back at the Ghana Bar Association’s (GBA) condemnation of some statements he made suggesting that judges were politically motivated in the discharge of their work.
The GBA in a statement Monday described as “unprofessional, unfortunate, irresponsible and distasteful”, Sosu’s comment that some judges have become political in the line of work and that such judges would be treated as such.
In response to the GBA’s statement, Sosu while condemning the association for what he described as its failure to safeguard the country’s democracy noted, “I stand by my statement any day, any time.”
“The statement was a conditional statement and no amounts of twists and turns will extricate judicial officers and judges who would allow themselves to become agents of political partisan agenda,” he added.
The GBA in its statement on Monday noted that per the 1992 Constitution judges were not elected into office and for that matter, their tenure of office was not tied to the tenure of the political regime under which judges were appointed.
But Sosu in his response expressed his disappointment in the leadership of the GBA, saying that the Association “has reduced itself to yet another useless institution of our democratic process in these days and times. Unfortunately, the leadership’s release shows the extent to which they are politically affiliated and biased as Leaders of the Bar Association.”
Nicholas Brown
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