Renowned private legal practitioner, Sam Okudzeto, has taken a swipe at Dormaahene, Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu II, over his request for the state to abandon its criminal case against Assin North MP, James Gyakye Quayson.
The Dormaahene, speaking during John Evans Atta Mills 10th Anniversary Commemorative lecture in Sunyani appealed to the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to discontinue the trial case of Mr. Quayson and further called on the Attorney General to also file a nolle prosequi to end the matter.
Responding to this, Okudzeto said if he were to be a member of the Disciplinary Committee of the Judicial Council, the Dormaahene would have lost his job as a justice of the High Court.
“To me, it is repugnant, it is senseless for a sitting High Court judge to stand on a public platform [and] make utterances of that nature. 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,” Mr. Okudzeto who is a member of the General Legal Council stated in an interview on Joy FM.
He expressed disappointment in Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu II for spewing such comments on a pending court case.
“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.”
A member of the General Legal Council Disciplinary Committee further blasted the chief for interfering in the work of another judge.
“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”.