It is now emerging that the newly appointed but yet-to-be approved Chief Justice of the Republic of Ghana, Her Ladyship, Sophia Akufo, a cousin to President Akufo Addo, is a stop gap head of the country’s judiciary.
Research conducted by a prolific writer cum social commentator, Ohenenana Obonti Krow, reveals the newly appointed Chief Justice to replace current CJ, Her Ladyship Georgina Theodora Wood, will only hold the fort for just 3years by which time she would have reached the mandatory retiring age of 70.
Article 154(2) (a) of the 1992 constitution, provides that a Justice of the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal shall vacate his/her office “on attaining the age of seventy.” Upon attaining the retiring age, article 145 (4) provides that a Justice of the Superior Court “may continue in office for a period of not exceeding six months after attaining that age.”
Justice Sophia Akuffo is presently 67, and will have her tenure before the end of 2020. When this happens, according to the researcher, it will then allow for the appointment of a new and probably younger New Patriotic Party inclined Chief Justice by President Akufo Addo ahead of election 2020 and subsequent polls.
While Justice William Atuguba is the most senior on the bench of the apex court of the land, many, particularly, NPP media affiliates, had tipped Justice Dotse to fill the yet-to-be vacant post of the 4th most powerful position.
However, President Akufo Addo surprised many when he settled on his cousin, Justice Sophia Akufo as replacer of Justice Wood, who is the President’s Cousin’s (Atta Akyea) sister-in-law.
Even though many Ghanaians, including the Minority in Parliament have hailed Justice Sophia Akuffo as an equally qualified and competent Justice of the Supreme Court, many are equally citing the growing nepotism in the Akufo Addo-led NPP government.
But, Mr Obonti Krow has provided new dimensions to the debate in the president’s appointment of her cousin as the new CJ of Ghana.
Read below Mr Krow’s analysis as captured by The aL-hAJJ
The new Chief Justice (Justice Sophia Akuffo) will end her tenure as the Republic’s CJ before we go for the next Presidential election, meaning, the current President will have the opportunity of appointing the next Chief Justice.
So, the question is, why did the President appoint someone who has few years left to retire? Is it another clever agenda to elect another young CJ after Madam Akuffo’s retirement to stay in office for a longer period? President Kufour settled on Mrs Justice Georgina Wood when she was 60 years.
Her appointment generated serious tension in the judiciary, senior judges at the Supreme Court and other senior lawyers protested against the President’s failure to adhere to the normal procedure. Soon after the death of Justice Acquah, President Kufour himself appointed Justice Francios Kpegah as acting CJ. The usual speculation about who was going to be appointed the substantive CJ dominated media discussions and names like Justice Tawiah Modibo Ocean and Professor Samuel Dartey Baah were mentioned in all discussions.
The President swerved Ghanaians by not following the normal convention for appointing CJs which were based on seniority at the bench, and appointed Georgina Wood. She was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Kufour on 12 November 2002 and that appointment was strategically made in connection with the Fast Track Review Case (The Tsikata case) and she was appointed alongside Late Justice Afreh.
The fear and agitations expressed by the NDC and other lawyers and section of the public were justified by some of Justice Georgina Wood’s own decisions including granting of permission for a court to sit on an election dispute on a statutory national public holiday in the 2008 election. Under the constitution, it is only the President that can grant a waiver for anybody to go to work. Madam Georgina Wood and the petitioners did not produce or publish an executive instrument to support their action yet, she granted permission for the court to hear election dispute.
We all heard what Atta Akyea said on the tape when he and other lawyers held clandestine meetings to discuss how he could place an injunction on the declaration of the 2008 election and the confidence they reposed in the CJ. A number of petition letters to revoke her appointment by some senior lawyers and judges were forwarded to Professor Mills but she was allowed to serve her term.
Justice Sophia Akuffo will surely retire under the current administration’s tenure which means the current President per the powers conferred on him by the constitution, shall appoint the next CJ after Justice Akuffo a scenario we must bother our minds (with) about. Is the current appointment a strategic move to finally appoint a younger CJ after Madam Akuffo who is more inclined to the philosophy of the President and his party?
This and other questions are legitimate questions. The constitution does not mention seniority at the bench as a constitutional requirement when appointing a CJ and the President in appointing the next CJ may chose to appoint a younger lawyer or a judge who will occupy the CJ position for a longer period.Credit: – Ohenenana Obonti Krow
‘Killing’ Indigenous Businesses
US Embassy,
MTN et al Owe
ECG GHC 300m
-As Government Okays Sale of ECG
While revenue agencies in the country are quick to swoop on Ghanaians businesses for nonpayment of taxes etc., it has emerged that several foreign companies and organizations operating in Ghana are highly indebted to state institutions running into millions of Ghana cedis.
In one such instance, Minister of Energy, Mr Boakye Agyarko, in a stunning revelation, disclosed how the US Embassy in Ghana and MTN Ghana, owe the ECG several million Cedis of power supplied.
While the exact outstanding amount owed ECG by the American Embassy with over 160 facilities across the country was not readily available, MTN on its part says it has an outstanding GHC35million debt to pay the state power distributer.
Sources at ECG told The aL-hAJJ, many companies owned by Lebanese, Chinese, Indians and other expatriates across the country owe the ECG huge sums of monies.
According to the source, foreign companies within Accra and Tema alone owe the ECG as much as GHC300. “They (foreign companies) owe us (ECG) a lot of money but unfortunately we are unable to chase them for it,” the source stated.
Though ECG has been active in disconnecting Ghanaians businesses and households that owe relatively meager sums, the Minister revealed that the state owned power Distributor has failed and or, refused to recover huge debts owed by many multinationals in the country.
Speaking to a group of journalists and officials of Millennium Development Authority at the sidelines of a 7-member ECG PSP stakeholders’ committee in Accra, Mr Agyrako said he was astounded when ECG has GHC130 million a week in receivables, but only manages to collects GHC 50 million.
“What happens to the balance? You look at their inventory and they have 20 years’ supply of spares. You have locked up that money in spares that would be obsolete,” he stated in an utterly jaw dropping mood shocking.
Singling out American Embassy and MTN Ghana, the Minister said he was shocked when officials of the two institutions said they have not been billed for several years despite their consistent effort to get ECG to bill them.
He said “I had a discussion with the Managing Director. American Embassy has 160 facilities in Ghana. They have not been billed for two years. So they went to ECG and said ‘look, we owe you money. Bring us a bill. Bring us pre-paid meters. We will use it for one year, and whenever we use, we will multiply it by 3 and give it to you.’ Up to now, the ECG hasn’t been able to do that.”
On MTN, Mr Agyarko noted “MTN called me and said ‘we owe ECG GH¢35 million. We are trying to pay. We are waiting for wire instructions. And we’ve been waiting for one month. So I went to ECG and I asked them. What’s going on? And they said ‘Oh the person who is supposed to issue the instructions is gone on leave’….And they have as many as 6500 staff and still growing.”
Perhaps, justifying why there was the need privatize ECG, the Minister wondered why the ECG officials have failed to collect huge debts owed by multinationals but are busily disconnecting households and small businesses owing the company.
“I live in Krobo Odumase, there are places there where ECG billed an electrician with just a bulb in his kiosk for GH¢4,000 a month. And the impudence on the part of ECG is they want to go and disconnect that person. ECG has to change,” he said.
He added “how is it that the power transmitted to EC, they cannot account for it over 20 years? People try to blame this small power theft, illegal power connection. That’s not where it is. There’s something called district boundary metering. We don’t do it. So a district like Somanya does not know how much power has been given to it. The grid power system also does not know how much power it has given to Somanya and how much has been paid. It is like say, I supplied petrol to a petrol station, but I don’t know how much petrol I put in the underground tank. So the station manager can come and say ‘Oh here’s GH¢100. That’s all you brought,’ without you the supplier knowing how much you put in their tank. So unless we address this district boundary metering, that power loss will not go down. And each percentage of power lost is 60 million cedis. So you are losing 21 percent from start. And then the balance of 70 that you get you only collect half of the money.”
It has now become the practice in Ghana that, revenue collection agencies and state institutions are only interested in chasing Ghanaian businesses to honor their obligations to the state while multinationals foreign businesses owing huge sums of money are left off the hook.
Recently, Chief Executive of Engineers and Planners, Mr Ibrahim Mahama was dragged to court by officials of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) for not paying SSNIT contributions of his employees.
He was also dragged to the Economic and Organized Crime Office for nonpayment of duties his companies owed the Customs Division of Ghana Revenue Authority.
While there is ample evidence that several multinationals are heavily indebted to GRA and SSNIT for duties and taxes and nonpayment of employees contributions, these institutions are only interested in chasing Ghanaian businesses for meager sums.
Abuse of Constitution Part 4
Akufo Addo’s
‘Cult’ Cabinet Unmasked
President Akufo-Addo has yet given the clearest indication that he has indeed constituted his Cabinet but has no intention to yield to demands by Ghanaians to make it public anytime soon.
Five months after being sworn into office, while some government officials have openly confirmed the existence of an Akufo-Addo constituted Cabinet, membership of the said Cabinet remained known to only the president and the Ministers.
The demand for the President to make public his Cabinet got to a head last week when he (Akufo-Addo) said he settled on his cousin, Justice Sophia Akuffo, as Chief Justice after consultations with Cabinet.
The President’s failure to “outdoor” his Cabinet five months after taking office has set tongues wagging with many referring to it as a “secret cult whose membership is known only to members of the cult.”
Prior to the official announcement of Justice Sophia Akufo as the new Chief Justice by the President, Accra based Joy FM reported that President Akufo Addo “after frank discussions with his cabinet last night at which other names such as Justice Jones Dotse and Anim Yeboah came up, the President made a strong case for Madam Sophia Akuffo.”
Deputy Director of National Service Secretariat, Nana Boakye had earlier stated on Metro Tv that the President had indeed constituted his Cabinet following which he appointed Secretary to Cabinet, Mrs Mercy Yvonne Debrah-Karikari on February 14 this year.
“We have a Cabinet…I have had like two or three meetings with the Minister of Education where he told me they are going for Cabinet meeting. For my Minister, my senior brother, Hon Mathew Opoku Prempeh they’ve been times where I have a meeting with him but he told me we should meet after Cabinet meeting. So there is cabinet,” Nana Boakye confidently stated.
The aL-hAJJ has been reporting that though the President has constituted his Cabinet, he is unwilling to make the list public because it is bloated and lopsided.
According to the paper, two regions, Western and Central, do not have a representation at Cabinet.
The paper further reported that President Akufo-Addo appointed twenty six Ministers out of the 40 sector Ministers as Cabinet Ministers against what the maximum nineteen that the constitution mandates him to appoint. The paper further reported that fourteen out of the nineteen Cabinet Ministers are from the Eastern and Ashanti regions.
A leaked memo from the Flag Staff House in possession of The aL-hAJJ, which contains the list of Ministers appointed to serve on Cabinet, reveals that the Central and Western regions would have no representation at Cabinet.
Though Central region has two substantive Sector Ministers; Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, Transport, and Prof Kwesi Yankah, a Minister of State at the Ministry of Education whiles, the Western region also has two; Tourism and Creative Art, and the Minister for Railway Development, Catherine Ablema Afeku and Joe Nana Ghartey respectively, none of them made it onto the list of President Akufo Addo’s Cabinet.
Ghanaians have raised concerns that if there was nothing wrong with the list of Cabinet Ministers, the presidency and Ministry of Information would not have remained tight lipped on it despite incessant requests by the populace to know Ministers who have been nominated as Cabinet Ministers.
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