Purging the Judiciary of corruption
The Judiciary is the bastion of our democracy, the bulwark against dictatorship and arbitrariness and the arm of government that ensures the rule of law.
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That is why everyone is worried about the recent disclosure that more than 100 members of staff of the Judicial Service, including 12 justices of the High Court and 22 of the lower Bench, have been implicated in a bribery scandal.
Very law-abiding, decent and discerning Ghanaians have been scandalised by some rulings from our courts as a result of undue influence of some judicial staff.
Certainly, as we have always insisted, there is something wrong with our judicial and penal system.
Although lawyers are quick to say that it is better for a criminal to walk the streets a free man than have an innocent person in jail, in some cases the Judiciary has supervised the imprisonment of otherwise innocent people.
Just as there are bad judges, there are equally bad lawyers who frustrate the system of justice and make it grind rather slowly and to justify the axiom: “Justice delayed is justice denied”.
If what is trending now about the exposé of alleged corrupt judges and court officials is anything to go by, then we all need to take steps to cleanse the Judiciary.
We, however, call for caution in the handling of the matter, so that the whole judicial architecture does not crumble but is rather strengthened through the exposé.
We are wondering if the Judiciary can cleanse itself of corruption, since the Chief Justice, the Attorney-General and the Ghana Bar Association have always spoken about corruption on the Bench and yet no concrete actions have been taken, except on a few occasions when some judges have been sacked.
This year’s Bar Conference in Kumasi has come at an opportune time and the Daily Graphic hopes it will be used as one of the fora to tackle the issue of corruption in the Judiciary.
Be that as it may, those who will be found culpable in the bribery scandal should be made to face the full rigours of the law to serve as a deterrent to not only the Judiciary but also all other sectors where endemic corruption has become the order of the day, from the topmost to the lowest official.
We are assured by the Chief Justice that the council will ensure that the rule of law, with all the constitutional guarantees and safeguards, will be respected in dealing with the matter involving the 34 justices implicated in the bribery scandal.
However, it is our fervent expectation that aside from the investigations, the Judiciary will help in exorcising the corruption spirit within its ranks to bring out the true meaning of the theme of the five-day Bar Conference: “The rule of law, access to justice and sustainable development – The panacea for political and economic progress of a nation state”.