Justice Akuffo vetting: Lawyers advertising on social media ‘distasteful’ - Mob justice is injustice: Akuffo

Answering questions at her vetting Justice Akuffo said: “Mob justice is a misnomer and it’s definitely not justice and it’s got nothing to do with the work we do.”

The most recent spate of mob justice included the lynching of army officer Major Maxwell Adam Mahama by residents of Denkyira-Boase who mistook him for an armed robber after spotting a pistol on him.

Also, a 67-year-old woman was lynched in the Northern Region on suspicion of being a witch, while in Kumasi a man was lynched for allegedly stealing a mobile phone.

In the view of Justice Akuffo, quality delivery of justice can help mitigate the phenomenon.

“… I was talking about effectiveness being a component of quality justice and many times, mob justice – I’m not justifying it – but mob justice, because it’s based on misunderstanding of processes, it could be because you didn’t understand why the person was freed or there’s a perception that what’s the point of reporting to the police, what’s the point of going to court about this matter, what’s the point of waiting for the judicial outcome because it will take too long and we won’t even understand what is going on and then people resort to self-help," the Supreme Court justice stated.

“Now when there is a lot of self-help – now mob justice is not only people beating people up – mob justice is land guards, that’s part of mob justice because it’s self-help and wherever you see self-help, it means that certain things have failed, and if it is within the civil realm, it has to do with maybe some delays in case management and so on and so forth so quality justice helps to speed up efficiently because although there is the saying that ‘justice delayed is justice denied’, there is also the flip side to it which is ‘justice hurried is justice buried’, and it is being able to strike that balance. And so that is one of the areas of concern for the judicial system and for the judiciary because so long as there is mob justice, to borrow your term, it means something is not going right, and, at least, we of the judiciary will do our optimal to ensure that we are not the cause of the mob justice.”

Contempt of court law not to gag anyone – Akuffo

The law on contempt of court is meant to protect the sanctity and integrity of the judiciary but not meant to prevent anybody from talking, Chief Justice nominee Sophia Akuffo has said.