Famous Ghanaian attorney Sam Okudzeto claims that if the Dormaahene, Osagyefo Agyemang Badu II, had been a member of the Judicial Council’s Disciplinary Committee, he should have been asked to resign from his position as a justice of the High Court for making public comments on a case that was still pending in court.
He asserted that the Dormaahene should be dealt with by the Judicial Council.
After the Dormaahene urged Attorney-General (A-G), Godfred Yeboah Dame, to drop the criminal charges against James Gyakye Quayson, the Member of Parliament-elect for Assin North, Sam Okudzeto, a member of the General Legal Council, made the decision.
The High Court in Accra is currently hearing the perjury case against James Gyakye Quayson.
In connection with a number of alleged offenses in the run-up to the 2020 Assin North parliamentary election, he is accused of forgery and perjury.
He entered a not guilty plea to five counts of forging a passport or travel document, making a false statutory declaration intentionally, lying under oath, and making a false declaration for office.
Speaking at the Professor John Evans Atta Mills Commemorative Lecture for the Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, and Western North regions in Sunyani over the weekend, Dormaahene urged the A-G to drop the Quayson criminal charges.
He insisted that since Quayson was re-elected by the chiefs and residents of the Assin North constituency, it was unnecessary for the Attorney General to pursue the case.
According to Osagyefo Agyemang Badu, who also serves as the President of the Bono Regional House of Chiefs, the law has a clause that allows the Attorney General to drop any case if the public is not interested.
He claimed that continuing the criminal trial was an insult to Assin North residents as well as Ghanaians.
James Gyakye Quayson’s prosecution, he continued, will prevent him from performing his duties as a legislator, and he does not believe it will benefit the nation in any way.
Sam Okudzeto, however, disagreed and stated that he would have demanded the resignation and dismissal of the Dormaahene as a High Court justice.
On Monday, July 3, 2023, Sam Okudzeto said in an interview with Accra-based Joy FM, “It is bad, it is just not decent for a judge to make such an utterance.
“This is my view. If I were [to be] sitting in that Disciplinary Committee on the Judicial Council, I would have asked him to resign or asked that he be sacked as a judge, that is what I would have done.”
“I was surprised that as a sitting High Court judge, he should make such statements of that nature, particularly in public. I was actually shocked because I will never dream of making statements of that nature. I think it is shocking. If he felt anything was wrong, he should have rather sought that person in private and maybe make a suggestion to him, which of course, it is the power of the Attorney-General to do what he decides to do, I don’t think anybody has authority to tell him what to do,” he added.
However, Godfred Dame asserted that remarks made by those in powerful positions might have an effect on the ongoing criminal trial.
He added that any comments that undermine the administration of justice are harmful and should not be tolerated, saying that they have the potential to affect the fair adjudication of the case.
