After weeks of speculation that he was running from the law, one of the High Court judges implicated in the judicial scandal has reported himself to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service.
Mr Justice John Ajet-Nasam is alleged to have taken bribes to tilt the scale of justice and was billed to appear before a disciplinary committee of the Judicial Council on October 19, 2015 but he failed to do so.
The first two occasions he failed to appear were Monday, October 19, 2015 and Tuesday, October 20, 2015.
Consequently, the committee caused a public notice to be published in the Tuesday, October 20, 2015 edition of the Daily Graphic, asking him to appear before it on October 22, 2015, but information gathered by the Daily Graphic indicated that neither Mr Justice Ajet-Nasam nor his lawyer was present at the committee sitting.
The investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, whose company, Tiger Eye PI, wrote a petition calling for Mr Justice Ajet-Nasam’s removal, was, however present at the committee.
Sources disclosed that the committee proceeded to watch the video showing Mr Justice Ajet-Nasam allegedly taking bribes on different occasions to subvert justice.
Anas answered questions posed by the committee after it became clear that Mr Justice Ajet-Nasam and his lawyer would not show up.
Latest twist
But information gathered by the Daily Graphic from a highly placed source at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service said Mr Justice Ajet-Nasam and his lawyer had reported themselves to the CID two weeks ago.
According to the source, Mr Justice Ajet-Nasam and his lawyer had indicated their preparedness to co-operate with the police. It said the two had cordial interaction with the police, who informed the judge and his lawyer that they would be invited for further exchanges if the need arose.
The source did not indicate whether or not Mr Justice Ajet-Nasam had, indeed, left the jurisdiction when he was billed to appear before the Disciplinary Committee. The Daily Graphic also learnt that some High Court judges had honoured the CID’s invitation and appeared with their lawyers for questioning.
It said investigations were going on to determine whether or not the judges should be charged for breaching the law.
Thirty-four judges, including Mr Justice Ajet-Nasam, and magistrates, 146 members of staff of the Judicial Service, as well as some policemen and state attorneys, were captured on a 500-hour video allegedly taking bribes to subvert justice.
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