The Judicial Service Staff Association of Ghana (JUSSAG) has mounted a strong defence against the allegations of bribery leveled against the Chief Justice (CJ) Kwasi Anin Yeboah.
According to JUSAG, it is impossible for the CJ Justice Anin Yeboah to demand or take any bribe because “he did not become a judge only just yesterday.”
Mr Alex Nartey, the president of JUSAG in an exclusive interview with EIB Network’s Court Correspondent Murtala Inusah, urged all staff members who maybe worried over the allegations against the CJ to be focused.
“My advice to staff who may be worried is that the Chief Justice who is heading the Judiciary is a man we can trust and he will prevail at the end of the day and so everyone should focus and work as we do always and at the end of the day, the Chief Justice would be vindicated,” Mr Nartey urged the staff.
Touching on how JUSSAG as an association and a stakeholder in justice delivery system received the allegations against the CJ, Mr Natey said, it is impossible for the “Justice Anin Yeboah we know to demand or take any bribe.”
He said, the CJ did not become a judge only “just yesterday,’ but he has been around for a long time.
He added “We us Judicial Service Staff have worked with him closely at various levels as clerks, at administrative and management levels, and we know the kind of person Justice Anin yeboah is.
“He (CJ) has an impeccable integrity – and has a high standard moral character. The ethical standards with which he goes about his work that we know, we are disputing this, we can’t believe it. It is impossible with him. I believe the lawyer who made that allegation himself knows very well that, what he said cannot be true. And so, I will urge and entreat Ghanaians not to place any premium on this allegation made against the Chief Justice,” the JUSAG president rallies.
On concerns that the matter should have been referred to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice to investigate instead of the CID, the JUSSAG president said, “I don’t think that the demands people are making are all right.”
“The office of the Chief Justice is a constitutional creation and has all means for a swift investigations, so that everyone will become clear that indeed the man is a clean man, he can’t do that and he will never do that,” he intimated.
Asked if his members are worried about the situation, he responded by saying “not at all.”
But aserted that, “we are worried to the extent that an innocent man is being pulled into an unfortunate situation that is the only worry we have.”
To this end, he said, “we take consolation from the fact that, we know the man and he is of integrity.
“We are happy work is going on and we know that at the end of the day, people who are happy about it will be proven wrong, so we are not perturbed at all, we know that, our Chief Justice is a man of integrity, and will not be involved in any such thing.”
Political motivation
On if the allegation has any political motivation, Mr Nartey said, he will not be surprised if it has.
“Well, I will not be surprised if it has a political undertone because Ghana seens to be now moving by political sentiments but unfortunately most of these sentiments born out of politics are not premised on the truth, they are only emotional and propaganda and so yes, people can always do their politics, but the truth will always prevail and that is what we are happy with.
On the call by some political parties for the CJ to step aside pending investigations, the JUSAG president said, such calls are too early.
“It is early days yet to say the Chief Justice should step aside just because, this flimsy allegation has been made,” he responded.
According to him, “the lawyer himself knows that he ought not to have made that remarks and it humilate him the more.
He said the lawyer by making those allegation is shooting himself down because ‘it doesn’t present any responsible picture to any responsible mind.:
Asked if he will be surprised if investigations prove otuerswise, he said “investigations cannot lead to any other outcome than the fact that the allegation is baseless and so that is what we look forward for.”
