Police Moves To Arrest �Anas� Judges

The aL-hAJJ’s intelligence has gathered that the Ghana Police Service under the able leadership of the hardworking Inspector General, Mohammed Ahmed Alhassan, would from today move to take into their custody the judges who were implicated in the alleged bribery scandal that rocked the country’s judiciary recently.

Impeccable information reaching this paper indicates that the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police yesterday formally wrote to the Judicial Council and the Chief Justice, to release to the police the 34 judges cited in the biggest corruption scandal that has hit the country’s judiciary for investigations and possible prosecution.

A senior police officer who spoke to this paper on strict condition of anonymity noted that the police administration, after reviewing media reports on the investigative piece by ace investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas on the bribery scandal and, as required by law, has decided to pursue the criminal aspect of the case even as the judiciary council continues with its administrative investigations.

Relying heavily on article 17(1) of the 1992 constitution which states that “all persons are equal before the law”, the high raking police officer stated “our core mandate is not only restricted to investigating crime, it also includes preventing crime. This mandate covers everybody including the President, MPs, Ministers and even our own selves…we (the police) are not above the law, the same way judges are also not above the law.”
“If we don’t move in now to start investigations, we will be the same people who will be tasked to go globetrotting looking for any one of the persons involved in the scandal should they abscond and that will make our work more tedious. So we have decided to deal with them now to avoid such a situation.”

The aL-hAJJ is reliably informed that the police administration will round up the 34 judges implicated in the Anas Aremeyaw Anas investigative video by close of day today.

Meanwhile, this paper has also gathered that the intended swift action by the police is also informed by intelligence report available to the security services that some of the affected judges are planning to move out of jurisdiction in order to avoid possible police arrest.

However, a senior police officer who spoke to The aL-hAJJ dismissed those fears, stating, “that is the kind of situation we are trying to avoid for which reason the IGP has written to the appropriate authorities to release them into our custody so that we will be able to monitor their movements etc... Latest by close of tomorrow, (Tuesday) we will roundup all of them… take their statements and where necessary, grant them bail as we continue with the investigations.”

He added that the IGP and the police administration are similarly taking immediate action on seven police officers also implicated in the corruption scandal. This follows a petition by Anas Aremeyaw Anas to the IGP to sanction the seven police officers he said solicited various sums of money to free criminals standing trial.

Undercover investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas compiled audio-visual recordings over a period of two years and documented shocking acts of supposed bribery of judges who trade justice for pecuniary and other material considerations.

Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Wood has instituted measures to establish whether there is a prima facie case against 12 High Court judges and 22 lower court judges captured on video allegedly taking bribes.

However, the investigation has stalled following legal technicalities invoked by some of the implicated judges to stop the committee from going ahead with the probe.

Despite the legal battle, the Chief Justice has warned that “no judge is above the laws” of Ghana, adding her office is bent on investigating the bribery scandal which has hit the judiciary.

“We gave power to Parliament to come out with laws and those laws are supreme because Ghana is under rule of law, so no judge is above the law,” the CJ said in a statement read on her behalf at the opening of a new circuit court at Awutu Breku in the Central region.