The Ghana Bar Association (GBA) has condemned President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for using its conference platform to campaign against former President John Mahama.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, the Public Relations Officer of the GBA Saviour Kudze said “What the president said today is rather unfortunate and we condemn it. The aspect we condemn has to do with his appeal to Ghanaians by way of campaigning of a sort to vote against Mahama just because he made a comment that President Akufo-Addo has allegedly packed the court with NPP-aligned judges as described by President Mahama.”
“And also bringing up the issue of the investigations allegedly linking former President Mahama to the Airbus scandal. Our platform is not supposed to be used for that and then we condemn that leg of President Akufo-Addo’s comment. We are not going to allow anybody to use our platform to campaign politically for or against the opponent.”
The GBA, however, added that it would not apologize to Mahama, as it had only condemned him when he had done the same thing in the past.
Akufo-Addo had earlier on Monday strongly criticized Mahama for his recent remarks alleging that the judiciary had been packed with judges aligned with the ruling NPP party.
He described Mahama’s comments as “very dangerous” and said they constituted a “brazen attack on the independence of the judiciary”.
The GBA said it shared Akufo-Addo’s concerns about the independence of the judiciary, but that it did not agree with his methods.
“The GBA believes that the best way to protect the independence of the judiciary is to ensure that all politicians, regardless of their party affiliation, respect the rule of law and the separation of powers,” the statement said.
The association called on all politicians to refrain from making political statements at its conferences and to respect the neutrality of the legal profession.
