PIX: Justice Nene Ofoe Amegatcher

KUMASI-BASED Private Legal Practitioner, Kwasi Afrifa Esq., has filed a writ at the Supreme Court against Justice Nene Ofoe Amegatcher’s insistence to sit at the General Legal Council (GLC) proceedings in the face of his retirement last February.

The writ, filed on March 30, 2023, was duly served on Justice Amegatcher on April 4, 2023.

Lawyer Afrifa issued the said writ against Justice Amegatcher personally challenging his continued sitting at the GLC as illegal having retired in February 2023.

In spite of having been served the writ personally Justice Amegatcher is not expected to be deterred because he has reportedly disregarded pending processes at the Supreme Court including a writ, an injunction and a contempt case before the Supreme Court and other fora.

But Counsel for the GLC Esi Dental Yankah led by Franklin Adanu at the 18th on March 21, 2023 defended the continued membership of Justice Amegatcher on the Disciplinary Committee quoting Section 17 (2) of the Legal Profession Act 1960 (Act 32).

Counsel further explained that a Committee member present panel could retain their position  while sitting up on a Disciplinary case and that it is only after a vacancy may be filled.

As a result,  the Committee dismissed the objection of the respondent who  had raised objection on point of law that president of the Disciplinary Committee recuse himself because he was no longer a serving Justice of the Supreme Court, which is the pre-requisite  for his presence on the panel.

The defiant posture of Justice Amegatcher is explained in the assurance and knowledge that the Chief Justice will protect him at the Supreme Court because he (Amegatcher) seems to protect the Chief Justice at the hearing involving Kwasi Afrifa in respect of the $5 million bribery scandal.

Sampled views of legal practitioners indicate that Justice Amegatcher’s insistence is premised on his desire to benefit from a prevailing illegal scheme at the Supreme Court by which the CJ permits retiring judges to purchase their duty post accommodation contrary to law even though the CJ is on record to have done it on several occasions to judges considered to be his friends, favourites and political allies including Justice Nasiru Sulemana Gbadegbe.

Justice Amegatcher’s insistence is also explained that the CJ does not want the matter started de novo ( afresh) which is likely if Justice Amegatcher stops sitting at the GLC (with Stephen Kwabena Opuni’s case in reference), an indication that Justice Amegatcher is doing the bidding of the Chief Justice who wants Lawyer Afrifa punished for exposing the $5 million bribery scandal.

It is believed that Justice Amegatcher is also being urged on by his senior, mentor and benefactor Samuel Okudzeto who allegedly manipulated his appointment to the Supreme Court because Okudzeto Esq. wants Lawyer Afrifa punished because of a confrontation between the two (Afrifa and Okudzeto) at the preliminary hearing of the GLC where Afrifa told Okudzeto Esq. that he should not assume any high moral grounds because of his (Okudzeto) role in the case of Okudzeto versus Irani Brothers where he allegedly committed various fraudulent offences against his clients.

In the circumstance, it is clear the CJ and Justice Amegatcher are laws unto themselves without any consequences for which further drama is expected to unfold to test whether the people who have the obligation to ensure the success of the legal system have respect for the law in the first place when Lawyer Afrifa and Justice Amegatcher engage in legalities at the Supreme Court.

Sitting continues, as usual, in camera on Monday May 15, 2023.

BY Kow Richardson 

Kumasi