Sam Okudzeto: I would have asked Dormaahene to resign or asked that he be sacked if…

The Dormaahene, Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu II would have been asked to resign or I would have asked that he should be sacked as a justice of the High Court for making public utterances on a matter pending before the courts if I were to be on the Disciplinary Committee of the Judicial Council, Mr Sam Okudzeto has said.

Mr Sam Okudzeto, a member of the General Legal Council, who made the call said the Judicial Council should take the action of the Dormaahene, also known as Justice Daniel Mensah, a serving Justice of the High Court very serious, since it has an effect on society and the conduct of other judges.

Mr Okudzeto spoke in a radio interview monitored by Graphic Online on Accra based Joy FM on Monday evening [July 3, 2023].

He was reacting to a statement by the Dormaahene, Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu II when he attended the Bono, Bono East, Ahafo and Western North regional version of the Professor John Evans Atta Mills Commemorative Lecture in Sunyani on Saturday [July 1, 2023].

Mr Samuel Okudzeto is a member of the General Legal Council Disciplinary Committee and when he was asked in the radio interview with Joy FM if this was something that triggers their mandate he said: “No” and explained the General Legal Council deals with lawyers and that this is a matter for the Judicial Council.

However, he said even if the Judicial Council does not take it up, it is a responsibility of any citizen to make an application to them, or petition them [Judicial Council].

“It is bad, it is just not decent for a judge to make such an utterance,” he said.

“To me [Okudzeto], it is repugnant, it is senseless for a sitting High Court judge to stand on a public platform [and] make utterances of that nature,” Mr Okudzeto said.

“This is my view. If I were [to be] sitting in that Disciplinary Committee on the Judicial Council, I would have asked him to resign or asked that he be sacked as a judge, that is what I would have done,”he added.

He said that could serve as a precedent and serve as a deterrent to other judges.

There have been some calls for the Disciplinary Committee of the Judicial Council to impose sanctions on the Dormaahene considering that he is a Justice of the High Court after he made that public statement, but some people including Rockson Nelson-Dafeamekpor, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for South Dayi have expressed a different view.

Commenting on the development in the Joy FM interview on the programme Top Story, Mr Sam Okudzeto said the comments from the sitting High Court judge was shocking and surprising.

“I was surprised that as a sitting High Court judge, he should make such statements of that nature, particularly in public. I was actually shocked because I will never dream of making statements of that nature. I think it is shocking. If he felt anything was wrong, he should have rather sought that person in private and maybe make a suggestion to him, which of course, it is the power of the Attorney-General to do what he decides to do, I don’t think anybody has authority to tell him what to do.”

Asked if there was a violation of the code of conduct governing the conduct of judges, Mr Okudzeto said “of course, there is a code of conduct that forbids judges from interfering in matters, particularly when the matter is pending in court, for a judge to interfere in it. A judge has no right to try and tell another judge or another court what they should do at a particular moment. That is not allowed, it is definitely not allowed”.

Asked again if there was something wrong especially when the Dormaahene was speaking in his capacity as a chief, Mr Okudzeto said “that even makes it worse.”

“I think there is something that worries me in this country of ours, we don’t understand that a chief is in a high esteem [such] that, he, in his palace can confer with people but that is in private. But to make a public pronouncement on a matter where you are the chief, as if you are giving an order to someone, whom you have no authority of power to do.

“But also the platform [where the Dormaahene spoke] becomes a little bit suspicious because it looks like a political forum. And you know the constitution forbids chiefs from interfering in or being involved in [partisan] politics.

“As a chief, you are a neutral arbiter, where citizens can come to you with a problem, your opinion, you even hold it to yourself but you try to see how you can resolve the matter between them… you don’t take a stand in any matter, which will give a slant as if you are politically inclined to one side. This was the basis for forbidding chiefs from being involved in politics, but if you want to involve yourself in politics, leave the stool and then go into the field, but once you are on the stool, it is forbidden. So this is why I was shocked at him making the statement that he is reported to have made,” Mr Okudzeto added.

Godfred Dame

When the Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame was asked by some journalists for a comment earlier on Monday, he said he will not comment on it right now and will issue a “proper” press statement later, and it will be in respect of generally, all comments that has the tendency to subvert the administration of justice.

“I think that it is very unhealthy for our democratic dispensation and therefore we must not countenance it.”

What Dormaahene said

Addressing the audience at the public lecture last Saturday, the Dormaahene made an appeal to the Attorney-General to drop the criminal charges against James Gyakye Quayson, the Member of Parliament-elect for Assin North. [Watch the video attached]

James Gyakye Quayson is facing trial for perjury at the High Court in Accra.

He is facing charges of forgery and perjury in relation to certain alleged offences in the run up to the 2020 Assin North parliamentary election.

He has pleaded not guilty to five counts of forgery of passport or travel certificate, knowingly making a false statutory declaration, perjury and false declaration for office.

It is the case of the prosecution that Mr Quayson allegedly made a false statement to the Passport Office that he did not hold a passport to another country when he applied for a Ghanaian Passport.

In addition, the prosecution has accused Mr Quayson of making a false declaration to the Electoral Commission (EC) to the effect that he (Quayson) did not owe any allegiance to a foreign country when he filed to contest as candidate for the Assin North seat in 2020.

“As a matter of urgency, I [Dormaahene] am appealing to the President of the Republic [Akufo-Addo], if he has any role to play, that trial should be aborted, and the Attorney-General should as a matter of urgency file a nolle Prosequi to end that particular decision” and abort the criminal case against Mr Quayson”, the Dormaahene said.

Insisting that it was needless for the A-G to continue the case, after the chiefs and people of the Assin North constituency re-elected Quayson, Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu, who is also the President of the Bono Regional House of Chiefs said the law has a provision or permitted the A-G to discontinue any case that citizens were not interested in.

He said continuing with the criminal trial was an insult to Ghanaians and the people of Assin North.

He added that, he does not see any benefits coming to the country, should the A-G decide to continue to prosecute James Gyakye Quayson and that prosecuting him will prevent him from doing his job as a legislator.

“Mr President [Akufo-Addo], you know I love you, this matter cannot go on”, he added.

The Dormaahene said the 17,245 votes representing 57.56 percent of the valid votes cast for Mr Quayson was a signal that the constituents had trust and believed in him to be their MP.

Disagreement with Supreme Court ruling
He said he disagrees with the Supreme Court’s ruling that annulled the 2020 Assin North parliamentary election that Quayson initially won and the consequential order for Parliament to declare the seat vacant.

The Dormaahene, who is also a High Court Judge – James Mensah – said if he was on the Supreme Court bench, he would have voted against annulling the election and that he would have voted on the “left” side and would not have gone to the “right”.

He said the reason, he would’ve gone to the left side is the same issues under consideration in the criminal trial and so he would not want to explain or speak on it.

Rockson Nelson-Dafeamekpor

The Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Rockson Nelson-Dafeamekpor also speaking on the issue in an interview with Joy FM said he disagrees totally with the “immoral suggestion being made that the matter should be looked into by the Judicial Council.

He said the Dormaahene did not breach any code of conduct for judges and magistrates.

The Spokesperson for the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Saviour Kudze joining the discussion said the comment was “improper”.

He said even if he was appealing to the Attorney-General to take such a step, “I believe that the proper thing was to do it in private and not in a forum like that. In any case, a lot of comments have been going around about this particular case, which is pending before the courts… and those making the comments looking at their stature and the kind of influence that they have, it is worrying and we shouldn’t encourage this.”

He said the second leg of the Dormaahene’s comment was indicative that he was not speaking as a chief but as a judge when he made reference to that fact that if he was a member of the Supreme Court panel that decided on the Gyakye Quayson case.