Kwamena Duncan has heavily descended on the paramount Chief of Dormaa traditional area, Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu II, who doubles as a sitting High Court Judge known as His Lordship Justice Daniel Mensah, over his call on President Nana Akufo-Addo to compel the Attorney General to end the criminal trial of James Gyakye Quayson, the Member of Parliament for Assin North.
Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu II, addressing a gathering at the 10th-anniversary lecture of John Evans Atta Mills in Sunyani, appealed to the President to intervene in the prosecution of the Assin North MP saying “honestly, I don’t see the benefits this prosecution will bring Ghanaians. If he is in court, he can’t fulfil his mandate so the president and the Attorney General should do something urgently to end this matter, so we move on as Ghanaians”.
“As a matter of urgency, I am appealing to the President of the Republic, Attorney General if he has any role to play, that trial should be aborted. The Attorney General should as a matter of urgency file a nolle prosequi to end that particular decision,” he further charged.
But Kwamena Duncan has expressed disappointment in the Dormaahene for making such a call.
Making his submissions on Peace FM’s morning show ‘Kokrokoo’, the former Central Regional Minister stated it appears Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu II is always at the center of controversies, something, to him, is uncharacteristic of a paramount Chief.
“I’m wondering whether indeed he has paused for a moment on why, as the paramount Chief, he is always in the eye of the storm. Why?”, he queried.
Kwamena blasted the Dormaahene explaining that, a person of his calibre and someone who holds eminent positions as a paramount Chief and the President of the Bono Regional House of Chiefs as well as a Justice of the High Court should know better not to speak in the manner he did and what is more disturbing is that his comments were made during an NDC forum.
He questioned if the Chief is in sync with the NDC’s position on the Judiciary being corrupt.
“As a judge, you know too well that I must not just stand on a podium and pick sides. You must at that lecture, you must point it out that look, based on this and that and that…the decision made in that case was in error and that if I were a part (of the judges), this is how my reasoning would be and finally the decision that I will arrive at. You never said nothing of that sort; all you said is you would go left.
” . . to the ordinary mind, that pronouncement, what it means is that those who gave that ruling were not fair. What are you adding on to this perception?…Dormaahene must understand that the proud profession he belongs to is already on the chopping board by the NDC. If he desires to add on, then he can continue on that path,” he exclaimed.
He also sought to find out from the Dormaahene if by his admonition to the President, he means “when a person becomes vested with political authority, the law is cancelled relative to that person?”
Kwamena wished Osagyefo Agyemang Badu II had sifted his words and not taken sides, particularly knowing very well what his role as a judge demands.
“My understanding is that for Nananom, they are the last to speak . . . Paramount Chief, that in itself is a big weight, then you swim to the other side of him that he sits in judgement; can pronounce judgement that Kwamena Duncan, indeed you are guilty of murder. You are convicted or you have been convicted and now sentenced to death. What is far weightier than being a Judge?”, he told host Kwami Sefa Kayi.
Source: peacefmonline.com
