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The Minister of Communication, Dr Edward Omani Boamah, is strongly opposed to legal suits filed by some indicted judges to stop investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, from airing audio visuals which allegedly capture judges implicated in the bribery scandal at the judiciary.

Contributing to a panel discussion on Metro TV Thursday, Dr. Boamah argued that any attempt to stop Anas from airing the video to enable the public make their own judgments would derail efforts in exposing corruption in the country.

Some High Court Judges accused of taking bribes are heading to court to stop plans to broadcast a video that purports to record their corrupt activities. One of the 14 High Court judges, Justice Paul Dery, has filed a writ seeking 17 reliefs from the High Court. The judge fears that “the intended public screening of the contents of the audio-visual recordings to the public by the 1st Defendant is prejudicial to the Plaintiff’s right to a fair hearing”.

The investigative journalist has also come under pressure to abandon plans to broadcast a video documentary of his exposé, but Dr. Omane Boamah believes that such pressures cannot prevent public screening of the video. A public screening of the video is slated for September 22 and 23 at the Accra International Conference Centre.

A former President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) Sam Okudzeto and some seasonal lawyers have insisted that any attempts by Anas to show the video tapes of the judges taking bribes will be unfair and, for that matter, it should be shelved. But Dr. Omane Boamah disagrees with such opinion.

“I’m not a lawyer but any court that will place an injunction on Anas’ videotape from showing to the public will be censorship and unconstitutional. Our constitution does not encourage censorship, so no court can prevent him from showing the video” Dr. Omane Boamah stated. The minister believes securing an injunction would not help, considering the fact that international networks like Aljazeera already have copies of the video which they can screen without any control from Ghana.

Dr. Omane Boamah stated that asking Anas to suspend the screening of the video would be an exercise in futility and only fuel unnecessary speculation.
This, he said, would not help the judiciary since there are many other honest and credible judges on the bench. He admonished the Tiger Eye investigation team to proportionately give prominence to the judges who refused the bribes.

“We have genuine judges in this country and my humble advise to the Tiger Eye is to ensure that the proportionately give prominence to those judges who declined or refused to be induced or bribed. Think that they should be celebrated,” he said.

A member of the Tiger Eye PI team of ace investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas says the team is ready to show the video of some judges caught on camera taking bribes to pervert the course of justice.

According to the man (name withheld), attempts by some indicted judges to halt the premiering will not deter them from showing the damning video to the public as planned.

An investigative piece by Anas is reported to have established complicity of some 34 high-profile judges in an explosive corruption scandal likely to impact negatively on the reputation of the Judiciary. The Judges were captured on tape in discussion with suspects or assigns of suspects on how to compromise the cases before their respective courts.

The incriminatory video shows money changing hands as one could hear the judges allegedly making demands as they plan to throw away cases which include robbery, murder and corruption among others. The C.J Georgina Woode has been on a crusade over the past few years to uproot acts of corruption perceived to be prevalent in the judiciary.

The Judicial Council has already handed down a suspension to 22 of the implicated judges, with 12 more to go. Below is the list of all the High Court judges who have been implicated in the damning video footage of corruption within the ranks of the judiciary:

Justice Essel Mensah
Justice Charles Quist
Justice Peter U. Dery
Justice John Ajet Nassam and
Justice Ernest Obimpe
Justice Mustapha Habib Logoh
Justice Yaw Ansu-Gyeabour
Justice Ayisi Addo
Justice Mohammed Iddrisu
Justice Yaw Badu
Justice Heward Mills