An eleventh-hour objection raised by Bawku Central Member of Parliament, Mahama Ayariga, to disallow the vetting of two Supreme Court Justices nominees who appeared before Parliament’s Appointments Committee yesterday came to naught after a tensed debate, passionate pleas, a brief suspension of the Committee’s sitting, and an over ruling and a vote.
The two new Supreme Court Justices nominees had been named by President Akufo-Addo to replace two justices of the apex who are due for retirement but moments after of the he nominees has sat before the Appointments Committee ready to be vetted, Mr. Ayariga raised an objection to challenge the rights of the President to make the said nominations.
If Mr. Ayariga’s objection was sustained, it would have meant that the nominees would not be vetted and the matter would have to be referred to the Speaker and or eventually the Supreme Court.
The Bawku Central MP had argued that President Akufo-Addo has no authority to appoint more than nine Justices to the Supreme Court, in addition to the Chief Justice and based his arguments on Article 128 (1) of the 1992 Constitution, which he claimed sets a limit on the number of Justices.
“There is nowhere in this constitution that the President is given the power to increase the number (of judges) beyond the nine plus one, nowhere, and I challenge anybody in this room to show me any provision in this constitution that states that even though Article 128 (1) says nine plus Chief Justice as the minimum and you don’t have an upper ceiling but the person to decide that upper ceiling is the President”, Ayariga stated.
He continued: “Who says the person to decide that upper ceiling is the President, who? Show me which provision… And I am not talking about this President, previous Presidents have done that before. So it is not about this President, previous Presidents have done that before… No such power is given to the President”.
Ayariga added: “As we speak, we have 15 justices on the Supreme Court. We are told that one is retiring. We have 15 justices on the Supreme Court. It means that we have nine plus the chief justice making 10 and an additional five making it 15. This letter states that two of the 15 are about to retire.
“The president is seeking to make early arrangements to make sure that there’s no vacuum when the two do retire…The legal issue that I’m raising before this committee, which should be captured in our report for discussion, is this. Whereas the constitution in article 144 says the president shall appoint the justices, there’s nowhere in this constitution that the president is given the power to increase the number beyond the nine plus one.”
The first nominee, Justice Sophia Rosetta Bernasko Essah, a justice of the Court of Appeal was seated before the Appointments Committee calmly observed the back and fort
Mr. Ayariga’s motion was seconded by Minority Leader Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson and other members of the Minority argued in his favour.
The Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin disagreed with the position taken by the Bawku Central MP and his colleagues from the Minority.
Afenyo-Markin made his point: ““We are only to vet and report to the preliminary for a decision to be taken. We are not determining whether we are going to take a matter under a certificate of agency which will be determined by a committee. No, this is vetting. Madam Chair, I am ready for her to start,”
Majority Chief Whip , Frank Annoh-Dompreh, supported the position taken by the Majority Leader and made a passionate argument to explain why the vetting should be allowed to happen.
None of the sides was willing to compromise and eventually the sitting was suspended for ten minutes before they returned to put the matter to a vote and the Chairperson over ruled Ayariga’s objection after the voting results was split.
The two nominees, Justice Sophia Rosetta Bernasko Essah and Professor Richard Frimpong Oppong were eventually vetted by the Committee.
