GBA condemns Francis Xavier Sosu over ‘political judges’ comment

The Ghana Bar Association (GBA) has condemned the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for the Madina Constituency, Mr Francis Xavier Sosu, for implying that some judges are politically motivated in the discharge of their work.
According to the GBA, the statement by Mr Sosu, a lawyer, is not only “unprofessional and unfortunate”, but also “irresponsible and distasteful.”

Mr Sosu during the Yentua demonstration last Thursday, February 10, 2022 asserted that some judges have become political in the line of work and that such judges would be treated as such.

“What it means is that when you become partisan as a judge, remember that your tenure of office as a judge will run with the political party that you favour. Let that be clear because political power is very transient, positions are not possessions, so people will come, people will go,” he said.

But a statement dated February 14, 2022, jointly signed by the National President and National Secretary of the GBA, Yaw Acheampong Boafo and Kwaku Gyau Baffour, condemned Mr Sosu, saying his statement “smacks of deep-seated ignorance, as the tenure of judges per the Constitution, 1992, and other relevant laws, is never in any way whatsoever tied to the tenure of the political regime under which judges are appointed”.

“Judges, unlike political office holders, are not elected into office; hence it is reckless for anybody to give the slightest suggestion that the tenure of judges are linked to the tenure of the political regimes under which judges are appointed,” the statement added.

It added that such “unwarranted, unnecessary and unjustified” attacks on judges have the potential of creating disaffection and ill-will for judges and for that matter the judiciary.

“The GBA observes that such ignorant and deliberate misinformation is gradually but steadily casting a slur on the appreciable gains that have been made in our democratic experiment as a nation,” it said.

The GBA therefore cautioned lawyers, “irrespective of their status in society”, to be circumspect in their utterances.