Private legal practitioner and NPP member, Gary Nimako
• Two lawyers have clashed over the format of a bribery probe involving the Chief Justice
• Madina MP Francis-Xavier Sosu wants the CJ to recuse himself for the probe
• But Gary Nimako holds a contrary view and thinks Sosu’s law appears rusty
Private legal practitioner, Gary Nimako has responded to calls by a fellow lawyer and Member of Parliament for Madina, Francis-Xavier Sosu, that the Chief Justice should step aside for a bribery allegation leveled against him to be investigated.
According to Nimako, the posture that the Madina MP had adopted to the episode suggested that his law is rusty.
In an interview with Nsem Pii TV, which content was uploaded on YouTube, he described the call by Sosu as baseless because the issue at hand was a criminal matter and one that needed to be treated as such.
“What Sosu is saying is baseless, it has no grounds. To say that the Chief Justice is the chairman of the General Legal Council and that he should step aside for a probe to take place, I think his law is a bit rusty.
“The General Legal Council, does not hear criminal cases. An allegation of bribery is a criminal matter, and it is the police CID that investigates criminal matters. It is not the GLC, so what he is saying has no basis. It is totally baseless,” he stressed.
Sosu had in a Facebook post suggested that the President takes the allegation seriously and call for the CJ to step aside or resign as the issue is investigated.
“For the public to continue to hold the judiciary and the high office of the Chief Justice in high esteem there is the need for some firm actions. By the application of law, the Chief Justice is the Chairman of the General Legal Council. This definitely would create serious doubt if he remains in the position whilst investigations into the allegations are done,” his post read.
“It is trite law that one cannot be a judge in his own course. Being the one whose name has popped up this this proceedings, the Chief Justice must do the needful. Justice, we say, must not just be done but must be seen to be done,” he added.
Sosu’s position is echoed by his party, the main opposition NDC who via a July 13 press conference addressed by General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia called for the CJ to step aside for investigations into the allegation.
Chief Justice calls for CID probe
Even though having referred the matter to the General Legal Council, the Chief Justice is also seeking a criminal probe into the matter which according to him was made “without any shred of evidence.”
Justice Anin-Yeboah on Monday, July 12, officially wrote to the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service to investigate the allegation of bribery made against him.
A private legal practitioner, one Akwasi Afrifa in response to a petition filed against him by a client alleged that the said client had told him about a US$5million bribe request from the CJ in a case he was presiding over.
“He further informed me that the Chief Justice had demanded a bribe of US$5,000,000 for a successful outcome to his case and that he had already paid US$500,000 to the Chief Justice,” lawyer Afrifa alleged in response to his client’s petition. The client has since denied this claim in a statement.
In his letter through the Judicial Service to the police CID, the CJ denied having anything to do with the potentially criminal matter and denied taking money to influence any decision.
“His Lordship the Chief Justice is saddened that without any shred of evidence, his name has been dragged into this sordid and potentially criminal matter.
“His Lordship further asserts that he has not demanded or received any money from any person to influence any decision,” the letter said.