Former President Mahama, addressing the 2nd Annual NDC Lawyers Conference over the weekend, expressed bitter sentiments about the current leadership of Ghana's judiciary.
Describing the image of the judiciary as broken under its current leadership, Mr Mahama called for a change in the administration of Ghana's judiciary.
However, speaking on Wednesday, August 31, 2022, edition of Peace FM's morning show, Bernard Allotey Jacobs, who has fallen out with the leadership of the NDC, tagged Mr Mahama's comment as a political ploy.
According to him, the outburst by former President Mahama is part of an orchestrated plot on the back of a statement by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo that he hopes to hand over to a successor elected from his party – the New Patriotic Party.
"The same old story; the fear of the 2020 verdict. So, if the president says this, then I'm not going to attack the president, but I'm going to attack the judiciary that gave the verdict for the president to be the president. That is the tactics," Allotey Jacobs said.
He further described the statement as unfortunate, adding, "The Judiciary is the four-foundation pillars upon which our democracy thrives... So, immediately you start to attack a pillar [not the four], even a pillar, it means there is something cooking somewhere... It is a strategy. This is a political strategy, but it is unfortunate."
Allotey Jacobs alluded that the NDC, over the period, has sought to create a bad image for the judiciary, warning that such actions could spell doom for the country in the next elections.
"When somebody talks about Ghanaians not liking the current Judiciary rules, and so forth, it is the creation of the NDC. It is a fact. They have named these Judges as 'Unanimous FC'. So, if somebody comes on a platform and attributes it to Ghanaians, it is not Ghanaians but his own people. So, you can't muddy the water and then come and accuse somebody".
"It looks like we are invoking the devil to descend [in] 2024. Is the devil going to be our judge? You know what goes along with the devil; chaos, anarchy!" he warned.
Former President Mahama, at the NDC lawyers conference, said there is a public perception of hostility and political bias about the judiciary.
"So badly has the image of our judiciary deteriorated that many of our citizenry openly make mockery of our justice system and of our justices. The phrase 'Go to Court' is these days met with derisive laughter, instead of hope that one will truly get justice".
"There is, therefore, the urgent need for the Ghanaian judiciary to work to win the trust and confidence of the citizenry and erase the widely held perception of hostility and political bias in legal proceedings at the highest courts of the land."
"Unfortunately, we have no hope that the current leadership of our judiciary can lead such a process of change. We can only hope that a new Chief Justice will lead the process to repair the broken image that our judiciary has acquired over the last few years," he said.
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Bernard Allotey Jacobs and former President John Dramani Mahama