Should we or should we not treat Politicians differently on matters of law?
June 22, 2008
Since the conviction of former GNPC boss Tsatsu Tsikata for willfully causing financial loss to the state and misapplying public property, the nation has been engulfed in many legal debates on whether or not it is appropriate to try Politicians for offences against the state.
Some Political observers have suggested that in the interest on national unity and in pursuit of an agenda to reduce Political Polarization in our country, sitting governments should use their discretion and avoid prosecutions and convictions that would lead to Political Polarization.
Others believe that argument is untenable and should not be allowed to hold sway. For them, it doesn’t matter who the individual is. If the state believes any citizen be he a Politician or not has breached the laws, Prosecution and conviction must go ahead to deter others from doing same.
What do you think?…………………………..
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17 Responses to “Should we or should we not treat Politicians differently on matters of law?”
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i,m with the view that our dear country is heading towards,civil strike as far as the political judgement are order of the day, i have been following the issues regarding mr tsatsu tsikata for not less than 7 years now.I became shock as far as stanic develish kangaroo judgement from the so called judge henrietta abban,is concerned, my question IS / are we talking about rule of law,do they mean when two people are involved in a deal ,one should be sentence without hearing from other party.CURSE BE ON POLITICAL JUDGESES AND THE TOP HIERACHY ALL OVER THE DAYS.WHO HAVE A HAND TO KILL INNOCENT SOULS.
FROM A CONCERN GHANANIAN IN CHINA,
GIBSON
kojo,we should be careful of the kind of precident we set in this contry.Are ghanaians saying that TSATSU should have been left alone! kojo ,go to the various district courts and see’ poor men are jailed several years ,sometimes for stealing a bunch of bannana.The law must be no respecter of persons’thanks man.
kojo,we should be careful of the kind of precident we set in this country.Are ghanaians saying that TSATSU should have been left alone! kojo ,go to the various district courts and see’ poor men are jailed several years ,sometimes for stealing a bunch of bannana.The law must be no respecter of persons’thanks man.
kojo pls ask mr.segbefia[campaign co-ordinator for atta mills]why in God’s name he told asempa fm that the imprisonment of mr.tsikata was a deliberate attempt by the NPPgovernment to jail EWES,NB:PLS SEE ASEMPA FM for the tape. PLS hold him to task as our nation is not ready to go the RWANDAN WAY.gud mon’n kojo n have a luvly day.
Kojo am surprised at my brother gibson who i know so well and is lying that he is a concern ghanaian in china.
Any way what are the main issues here, my first question is did tsatsu commit the offence he being arcussed of? second per the LI that established GNPC what was it’s core business and thirdly is true that tsatsu changed GNPC’s core business of exploring for oil into salt production company without seeking the approval from the board?
My dear ghanaians if he did commit tha above errors or offence, the big question is what are the panelities or panishment for committing such offence.
Let us all ghnanaians move away from partisan politics and allow the rule of law to take its course in our country, because tsatsu, abodapi or who ever it might be is not above the law in our country.
We should rather set the presedence for who so ever that gets to pulic office to be accountable for their actions and in actions, it only then that our country will move forward.
long live Ghana.
The P/NDC has always resented justice and has used various ways to intimidate our judges. The P/NDC earliest attack on the justice system was the establishment of the Public Tribunals, which was supposed to be a system that dispensed “justice” without any of the technicalities like interlocutory appeals, adjournments, rule of law, evidence code, and legal representation.
This was soon to be followed by the abduction and execution of Justices Koranteng Addow, Agyepong and Sarkodie at the Bundase military range. Subsequent evidence by the SIB found that the then P/NDC Security Capo, Kojo Tsikata, masterminded this military operation with the intention to intimidate the judiciary.
The P/NDC turned its attention to Justice Afreh following the conviction of the Quality Grain gang. Afreh was maligned, insulted, and accused of taking instructions from the Castle. As a matter of fact, Afreh’s judgment in the Quality Grain case was a masterpiece that is cited by the Supreme Court in any discussion of the Law on Causing Financial Loss to the State. He defined the contours of this crime and applied the law to the facts of the case before him. Notwithstanding that he also set free some of the defendants in that case, evidencing his independence and commitment to justice, the P/NDC attack machine was unleashed on him. Restrained by his profession and unable to defend himself, he endured months of unfair and reprehensible attacks from the P/NDC machine led by Obed Asamoah, chairman JJR and Asiedu Nketiah. May he rest in peace.
Next, the P/NDC turned its poison on Justice Faakye. His offence was to send Abodakpi to jail for defrauding the State to the tune of $400,000. Justice Faakye was accused of taking a phone call that instructed him on the verdict and sentence that he must imposed on Abodakpi. Such warped reasoning! Again Faakye became a victim of the P/NDC malicious attacks and no section of the society rose to his defense.
Most recently the P/NDC has turned its attention to Justice Henrietta Abban. Somehow Abban has always been the object of the P/NDCs intimidating attacks. She was once accused of calling Faakye to instruct him on how to sentence Abodakpi. And now that Abban has sentenced Tsatsu Tsikata for his criminal actions, the attacks on her have reached a crescendo.
I cannot think of another criminal case in the history of criminal trials, anywhere in the world, where the defendant has been given so much leeway to abuse the interlocutory process as happened in the Tsikata case. The case itself is a very mundane one. Tsikata was charged with three counts of willfully causing financial loss of about 2.3 billion cedis (about $5M based on the exchange rate at the time of the transaction) to the State through a loan he guaranteed for Valley Farms, a private concern, on behalf of the GNPC. He was also charged with misapplying public property. In effect, the State’s primary burden was to prove beyond reasonable doubt that a willful act by Tsatsu caused a financial loss to the State.
One of the interlocutory appeals heard by the Supreme Court was whether the Chief Justice had the administrative power to create the Fast track Courts. In February 2002, a subset of the Supreme Court, by a 5-4 decision, declared the Fast Track Court unconstitutional and immediately put at substantial risk all the decisions that had been hitherto rendered by these Fast Track Courts. In spite of this risk, the full panel of the Supreme Court waited for 4 months before reviewing and setting aside this totally flawed decision.
In the most bizarre of these interlocutory appeals, Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata petitioned an Accra High Court to declare as null and void, a judgment given against him by the Supreme Court (the SC had ruled that the AG can represent the CJ). No disciplinary actions were taken against the lawyers who filed this frivolous petition.
In spite of this clear abuse of the appellate process and the unprecedented benefit of the doubt that Tsikata was given at the trial level, it is amazing that no less a person than Professor Mills will assault the judiciary at the IEA platform to launch his failing campaign. One would have expected that a Presidential wannabe, and a former law professor, will be a little more respecting of the Justice system and put the interest of the nation ahead of his friend.
Finally, it amazes me that civil society has countenanced these unfair attacks on our Justices by this lawless bunch for so long. It is time for those of us who believe in the rule of law to stand up for our judges and push back at these P/NDC hooligans.
It is time to put an end to the intimidation of our justices!
We have stood the world on its head but its makes perfect sense to us. An accuse on trial has asked the supreme court to rule on a witness to testify in his defence, even though the supreme court has not rule on the matter, the judge went ahead to give judgement even in the absence of defence lawyer. Whose nest was the judge trying to feather when she said , the case has become an albatross on her neck. This is travesty of justice and bad judicial precedent.
hi kojo
tsatsu deserve fair trail than that the judge did.may God help us all.
sika
Kojo, please can we start asking again what happened to the Ghana @ 50 cars?
Ah! Why!
I think this type questions do violence against common sense!
We have been told that we are all equal before the law, what then again?
Well, then, the law should swiftly be applied to that “poor woman” who sells tomatoes at the market?
The judicial system should be fair to everyone.
I don’t believe we need to treat any group of ghanaians different and the politicians included. I think that the Ghanaian politician should have at the back of his head that he is not different from the ordinary ghanaian who gets 5 year imprisonment term for stealing a goat.
Kojo I have a quotes for you on this topic;
Being in politics is like being a football coach, you have to be smart enough to understand the game and dump enough to think its important.
And i think the ghanaian politicians are doing very well at this.
we say rule of law must work,so judgment is pronounced because the accused has no counsel at the court. we say rule of law must work, the counsel is not notified about the ruling of the case and judge can go ahead with the case. we say the rule of law must work even when a case is pending before a supreme court,high court can go ahead to determine the case, knowing well that the ruling of supreme court may have bearing on the high court judgment.is it a case of the law being an ass? i suspect, there are underhand dealings to nail the man who is reputed to be best legal brains this country has ever had . this fact is reinforced quite recently when he lectured Supreme court judges about the case and this is a man who defeated Akufo -Addo a number of times.this is a man who forced prez Kufour to cut short his trips to states and come home to pack the supreme court with his “favorites”. the initial verdict was turned to Prez’ favor. this is the rule of law we are clamoring for in Kufour’s Ghana. this is a legacy the prez will be leaving,come next year.as for some of us, we are not lawyers or law students at that. if we decide to read law one day, we shall follow footsteps of Tsatsu. not Akufo-Addo.To recall the words of Kofi Coomson, still fresh in our minds, Akufo-Addo does not deserve to rule this country.he can not trust Akufo-Addo with the country.we can not agree more with Kofi.let us talk about track records,Akufo-Addo has nothing to boast of while in office as Attorney-General.
when Akufo-Addo won the flagbearer albeit questionably(he could not get 50+one vote),he promised to tell us a story.ever since we kept wondering what story is he going to tell us.it is almost getting to a year now the story still remains untold. Or has he realized that so soon that others would be able to tell the story better that him? we are waiting for his story to be told to us Ghanaians, we rest our case.
the law is no respecter of persons politician or no politician once you committed the crime you should be dealt with fair and square
The remarks of the judge before the sentence makes the judgement look political, by the way what about Charles Wereko Brobbey has it not caused enough financial loss to this country?
Kojo, what is going on with live streaming of your show?