Following their public vetting before the Appointments Committee of Parliament, two out of the four nominees of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo have been recommended for approval.
On the fate of the remaining two others nominees: Justice Ernest Yao Gaewu and Justice George Kingsley Koomson, the Committee did not indicate any reasons for not recommending them for approval.
And as many would recall, one of the two unconfirmed judges, Ernest Yao Gaewu, is the man who was linked to the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).
After he was nominated for to the Supreme Court of Ghana, GhanaWeb sighted documents that proved that he was a one-time parliamentary candidate of the NPP for the Ho central constituency seat.
However, appearing before the Appointments Committee of Parliament, where he was taken through a very tough time, Justice Yao Gaewu told the panel that he had renounced his membership of the NPP before his nomination.
According to him, he is not in a position where his political history will interfere in the discharge of his duties and that he will not relent to recuse himself from a case that conflicts with his ideas.
“Mr Chairman, luckily, I am not a member of the NPP for now. I am no longer a member of the NPP. I have sworn a judicial oath to do right to all manner of persons. My lord if I am empanelled and to the extent that well it will conflict with my ideas, I may ask to be recused.
“I ceased to become a member of the NPP on the 16th day of September 2020,” he told parliament’s Appointment Committee during his vetting on Wednesday, October 19, 2022.
However, it appears his past political life may just have come in the way of his advancement to the Supreme Court.
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While this has not been clearly stated in the document released by the parliamentary committee on the vetting of the nominees, the reasons for recommending Justice Barbara Frances Ackah-Yensu and Justice Samuel Kwame Adibu Asiedu, were stated.
In its reasons, the Appointments Committee of Parliament said that the confirmed two justices “demonstrated dexterity in the knowledge of the law and showed character and competence.
They pledged to interpret the law without fear or favour and eschew partisanship in their rulings.”
The report of the Appointments Committee did not indicate the fate of the remaining two nominees, Justice Ernest Yao Gaewu and Justice George Kingsley Koomson.
It can be recalled that four nominees, including Justice George Kingsley Koomson, Justice of the Court of Appeal;
Justice Samuel Kwame Adibu Asiedu, Justice of the Court of Appeal; Justice Ernest Yao Gaewu, Justice of the High Court; and Justice Barbara Frances Ackah-Yensu, Justice of the Court of Appeal, were vetted in October 2022 after their nomination by President Akufo-Addo.
Read the full report below:
AE/WA
