The Minority in Parliament have strongly condemned what they say are unsavory comments, which tend to scandalize the judiciary.
They said it must not be lost on anyone that an attack on the members of the bench was an attack on the fundamental principle of the rule of law and access to justice.
To this end, they said, it behooved on all Ghanaians to �protect it at all times, even when they hand down unpalatable decisions.�
The MPs said this at a press conference held in Kumasi to respond to what they said was the unwarranted and reckless attack on the person of one of the Supreme Court Judges, Mr Justice Anin Yeboah, who sat on the landmark election petition, by Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, lead Counsel for the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Mr Joe Osei Owusu, their spokesperson, said the accusation of bias made against the Judge was unsupported by facts and attacked his integrity.
He said Mr Tsikata�s reference to perceived error of law made by the same judge at the Court of Appeal in a matter in which he was personally involved actually gave him away as hiding behind the Supreme Court�s verdict to pursue a personal agenda of an �ex-post facto justification of his claim that he was wrongly convicted for the offence of causing financial loss to the state�.
�But even in that exercise Mr Tsikata fails as his conviction was upheld all through to the Supreme Court and his petition to the AU Commission on Human and Peoples Rights was also dismissed.�
He said they were not in any way seeking to curtail the right of any Ghanaian and any lawyer for that matter to criticize any judgment or judge�s opinion, or his or her interpretation, appreciation or enforcement of the law.
The hard truth is that Mr Tsikata was not disagreeing or even criticizing Justice Annin Yeboah�s reasoning in his judgment but rather attacked his integrity, labelling him as �bias�, something they found �irresponsible, reckless, cowardly and a clear manifestation of the low standards in professional ethics.�
He said everyone needed to recognize that the �judiciary is the bulwark against constitutional and administrative tyranny. It is the only true protection for all Ghanaians, rich and poor, weak and strong, government and opposition, young and old.�
<<Print>>