Justice Atuguba�s �Nation Breaking Down� Statement Is Prejudicial � Kweku Baako

Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Malik Kweku Baako has condemned the reported statement made by Justice William Atuguba at the Supreme Court on the country�s stability as prejudicial. Justice Atuguba reportedly said, �This country is solid but is breaking down because principles are being chopped down� This is not good.� �We have a strong and solid independent Judiciary in this country which must be preserved,� Mr Justice Atuguba said, in apparent response to a challenge to his being a member of the panel constituted by the Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, to hear the NDC�s motion for joinder to the petition challenging the declaration of President John Mahama as winner of the December 7, 2012 presidential election. �If we perceive the Judiciary not to be independent, we will be gambling with the destiny of this country,� he remarked. But speaking on Joy FM�s Newsfile, Saturday, Mr Baako questioned the circumstances which occasioned the seeming outburst. �Principles are being chopped down, which principles and by who and how? This is the president of a panel and it means a lot,� he said Mr Baako asserted: �It is a very prejudicial statement to be made by a president of a panel at the Supreme Court level. That is my view, it is prejudicial; it doesn�t help anybody. What occasioned it?�