Law students who took to the streets to demonstrate on Monday against the ‘strict and unfair’ system currently running in the Ghana School of law have noted that they will keep resisting the system until legal education is opened to all.
According to the spokesperson for the National Law Students Association Nii Adokwei Codjoe, students are ever ready to “resist oppressor’s rule” as imbibed in the national anthem.
His comment comes on the back of the statement made by the Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo on October 4, 2019, during the passing out ceremony of 305 new lawyers in Accra.
During the ceremony, the chief justice stated that the existing systems and structures for the training of lawyers in the country will not be changed despite public outcry.
She stressed that the current system that many deem as strict and unfair, is meant to ensure that lawyers who are trained in the country are of global standards.
“…the General Legal Council (GLC) continues in its quest to assure the people of this great republic the excellence in professional legal education and production of quality lawyers that they so well and dearly deserve."
But Mr. Adokwei Cudjoe in response intimated that: “we are not here hiding our faces. We are willing to show to the entire country that 128 is the last draw and that, what the national anthem says that resist oppressors’ rule, we are prepared to do that”.
"… the national anthem is like a prayer and, therefore, if we keep singing the national anthem but do not implement the national anthem, then who are we praying to," Mr. Codjoe quizzed.
In a bid to demonstrate against the ‘oppressor’s rule’ and to present a petition to the President at the Jubilee House in Accra, the law students were met with resistance from police officers, who claimed they had no permission to enter the presidency.
Reacting to that claim on JoyNews’ AM Show, the SRC President, Jonathan Alua noted the police had initially stated that they were against the protest but after deliberations between his colleagues, the police service asked them to reschedule their demonstration to either October 9 or 10 of which they objected vehemently.
Mr. Alua added that “we are law students; we know what the law says. So, we went back, we wrote a letter to them on Friday telling them that pursuant to our notice on the 27th we have decided to go ahead with our demonstration and we can’t call it off because people are transporting themselves.”
