Some politically aligned lawyers deliberately use social media to denigrate judiciary – A-G laments  

The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice says some lawyers belonging to political parties deliberately attempt to bring the judiciary’s image into disrepute.

According to Godfred Dame, these lawyers resort to social media to achieve their target.

He made these remarks when addressing the Bench, Bar and Faculty Conference on Thursday.

Mr Dame said these lawyers embark on such actions when their beloved parties lose cases in the courts.

He insisted that such acts have the ultimate tendency to destroy the integrity of justice delivery institutions in Ghana.

“My Lord Chief Justice, one would have thought that lawyers would have taken advantage of the blessings of the digital evolution, which I have spoken about this morning, to consolidate the importance of the legal profession and its central role in the affairs of state.

“On the contrary, recent developments disclose a systematic attempt by certain lawyers, often belonging to a side of the political divide, to deploy social media to denigrate the administration of justice through poisoned and caustic attacks on judgments of the courts, albeit unjustified.

“This is often witnessed in commentary on so-called political cases, where some lawyers perceive the outcome to have a far-reaching consequence for the objectives of political parties they sympathise with.”

The Attorney General thus urged them to desist from such conduct and instead focus on ways they can help better the justice delivery system in the country.

“Faced with adverse rulings, some lawyers go to the rather farcical extent of actually advocating for the abolition or scrapping of our courts. The most deplorable thing about such endeavour is that many a time, their vicious comments are plainly wrong.

“Yet, the propagators of these wrong and dangerous ideas do not relent in their efforts to push them down the throats of the unsuspecting public. Such disreputable practice on the part of some lawyers further becomes an inducement to persons who are not members of the legal profession to launch even more savage and illogical attacks on the Judiciary. 

“This conduct is clearly despicable, as it has the ultimate tendency to destroy the integrity of justice delivery institutions in Ghana.”

Recently, some leading members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) have taken issue with the apex court for some of the rulings it has delivered.

They suggest the rulings are one-sided and mostly favour the ruling party or the government.

As a result, they have sarcastically christened the apex court as “Unanimous FC”.

Meanwhile, the National Security Minister, Kan Dapaah, speaking at a sensitisation workshop on the national security strategy for judges of the superior courts, warned that the perception that the judiciary is biased has dire consequences on the country’s security.

He said if this is not checked, it will compel the citizenry to take the law into their own hands for personal satisfaction with the bench deemed biased.

“Injustice occasioned as a result of the absence of an effective justice delivery system or delayed justice or biased justice is certainly a threat to national security.

“Indeed, when injustice abounds, particularly in situations where the bench, which is considered the final arbiter of disputes, is deemed biased, citizens tend to take the law into their own hands most times without recourse to the established systems of justice delivery,” he said.

He added, “If the interpretation of the law is tilted in our favour all the time, people will start accusing the judiciary and will not have the confidence that they need.”