By: Ewurabena Paha
The Ghana Bar Association, says current public attacks on the Judiciary, and particularly, Judges are slanderous and disrespectful.
Speaking at the 41st Remembrance Service of the three murdered High Court Judges in Accra, President of the Association, Yaw Acheampong Boafo, said the development is shameful, because those in the act are members of the Bar and politicians with Legal backgrounds.
Mr. Acheampong Boafo cited the stance of the Minority in Parliament during the recent Nomination, Vetting and the subsequent approval of the Chief Justice, saying their utterances and behavior did not only attack the personality of the Chief Justice, but brought into disrepute, the entire structures of the country’s rule of law.
Justices Cecilia Koranteng Addow, Fred Opoku Sarkodie, and Kwadwo Adjei Agyepong were Justices of the High Court murdered in December 1982. The three are remembered by the Judiciary and the Bar annually with a solemn service of which the 41st edition was held at the Holy Spirit Cathedral this morning in Accra.
President of the Ghana Bar Association, Yaw Acheampong Boafo, said attacks on the Judiciary and its workers, particularly judges, have taken a turn in which persons with legal backgrounds publicly abuse judges and bring their personalities to disrepute. This trend, Mr. Acheampong Boafo said, is disrespectful and shameless and must stop immediately.
Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo read the first scriptures in the book of Proverbs while Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, took the second reading in Acts.
Parish Priest of Christ the King, Very Rev. Fr. Dr Ebenezer Akesseh, focused his sermon on forgiveness, urging those affected by the murder of the judges to take comfort in the Lord and render their fears to him.
President Akufo-Addo was among dignitaries who attended the service.
Relatives of Justices Cecilia Koranteng Addow, Fred Opoku Sarkodie, and Kwadwo Adjei Agyepong, whose statues stand in front of the Supreme Court of Ghana buildings, shared fond memories of the murdered Judges in tributes read in a solemn atmosphere.