By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
A group calling itself the Law Society of Ghana (LSG) has denied widespread media reports suggesting the Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament Rt Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has withdrawn his membership from the Ghana Bar Association (GBA).
Reports were rife on several news portals that the Rt Hon. Bagbin has quit the Ghana Bar Association.
This came up when the Law Society of Ghana (LSG) paid a courtesy call on the Speaker at his office to congratulate him on his new position as President of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA).
Reacting to the development in the media, the LSG in a press statement issued today, Monday, 26, September 2022 said: ”It must be placed on record that nowhere in the Speaker’s welcoming remarks during our visit, did he ever state that he had resigned from the Ghana Bar Association (GBA).
In his remarks, he expressed in strong words, his revulsion about the state of the GBA and wishes to see a change for a better Bar Association committed to the aims, objectives and ethics as captured and practiced globally.”
According to LSG, the Speaker only stated that the “GBA has now become too elitist, stressing that he used to pay his dues religiously until it came to his attention that any lawyer that had a close association with the then Public Tribunal Court was not recognized and paid their last respects by the GBA, upon death. He cited instances. As a result, his interest in the GBA has diminished and with it the non-payment of his membership dues and not necessarily that he was not a member.