STORY
BY: PIUS K. DOGBEY
Mr.
Kwesi Pratt Jr. has expressed his disappointment and disdain about a public
statement made recently by the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) condemning Mr.
Tsatsu Tsikata, lead counsel for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the
just-ended election petition in relations to a perceived attack on one of the
Judges, saying that the GBA has done itself no good by the issuance of the
statement.
He said
we cannot afford to have a situation in this country where the GBA, a body which
sought to uphold justice be flick-flocking and abandoning principles, which go
a long way to show the partisan polarization of the association and some of its
members.
Mr.
Pratt further descended heavily on the bar association saying its endorsement
of selective commentary is hypocritical to the extreme, citing that not too
long before the statement attributed to the NDC lead counsel was made, another
lawyer suggested that the justices who do not rule in their favour risk being
killed but the GBA was absolutely silent on this only to come out to condemn
Mr. Tsikata.
“Somebody
should tell me if that was not graver than the statements attributed to Mr.
Tsatsu Tsikata. What is good for the gander should necessarily be good for the
goose. This shows the extent to which the GBA has been hijacked by political
elements, pursuing their parochial and partisan interest in the name of legal
collective association”, Mr. Pratt further lamented.
Going
down memory lane and citing the infamous page 28 case in 1995 where the
leadership and members of the GBA at the time issued statements of condemnation
against Justice Bamford Addo for stating in her verdict that, in contempt cases
the truth is no defense, he does not see the reason why Mr. Tsikata is being
chastised.
The
Insight Managing Editor also noted that, those same members of the GBA at the
time, who as a sign of solidarity with Mr. Mensah Bonsu withdrew their services
for a month in a strike action, are today lashing out at Mr. Tsikata, stating
the same reason Justice Addo gave in her judgment that the truth is no defense
in contempt cases.
“So when
did they find out this, when they withdrew their services if they know what
Justice Bamford Addo said was the truth? What is the message in this? Were they
engaged in petty partisan politics then?” Mr. Pratt asked worriedly.
He said
although he defended Mr. Bonsu and still believes that his conviction was
wrong, thus no journalist should be sent to jail for publishing the truth, the
lawyers who said his conviction was wrong but are now saying things which go a
long way to endorse that decision should listen to themselves and pay attention
to their own inconsistencies.
Mr.
Pratt implored that, the obvious silent of the GBA that met the lashing and
criticisms of the judges by other lawyers, aside Mr. Tsikata, calling them
names and saying they were corrupt, should have been maintained in the case of
the NDC lead counsel.
He
however said he was not surprised by the action of the GBA because over the
years elements in the association have exhibited extreme hatred towards Mr.
Tsikata, stating that Nii Osa Mills, one time president of the GBA was
prevented from contesting election and was later removed because he visited Mr.
Tsikata in prison as a sign of solidarity:
“The
same GBA that went on a month-long strike in solidarity with Mr. Mensah Bonsu”,
Mr. Pratt noted with outright amazement.
He
intimated that, he heard and interviewed other lawyers from the camp of the
petitioners who have also raised issues of unfairness, thus if all side are
complaining about the final verdict, why then condemn one side and leave the
other?
Mr.
Pratt has, therefore, appealed to those in associations and the lawyers not to
allow those organisations to be misused in their names for parochial and
political interests.
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