Private legal practitioner and lawyer for one of the 22 judges implicated in the latest bribery scandal in the judiciary, John Ndebugri, has described as hasty the investigation process.
According to him, the Chief Justice and the judiciary committee established to conduct investigations have not followed due process in their bid to deal with the issue.
John Ndebugri made these comments in an interview with Citi News on Friday shortly after filing a writ at the Fast Track High Court to halt the process.
“We think so because for example the letters that were written to our clients were dated 4th September and they received the letters on the 7th and they were asked to respond by the end of working day on the 8th,“But they couldn’t respond on the said date because a lot of them came from the out station so they submitted their responses on the 9th, then they were dragged to the disciplinary committee,” he said.
John Ndebugri and some other lawyers of the indicted judges are in court seeking reliefs to declare the disciplinary proceedings as running contrary to law. They are also seeking that the court declares as unconstitutional, the panel constituted by the Chief Justice to institute disciplinary action.
32 lawyers were indicted for engaging in corrupt practices in an expose by ace investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas. 22 of the judges involving magistrates and circuit court judges are being interrogated by the disciplinary committee chaired by Supreme Court judge, Sophia Adinyira.
Mr. Ndebugri who concedes that persons found culpable ought to be dealt with by law, however argues that the right procedure will have to be followed,
“The plaintiffs in this case are not against investigations but the investigations must be carried out according to law,”
“These are judges and magistrates so if the law can be set aside and they are dealt with rough shot, then what will happen to the other members of the public,… justice must be dispensed in an even manner,” he added.
Meanwhile Mr. Ndebugri also explained that reports on the suspension of the judges takes effect on September 14 since it was to be effective after the judges had submitted their responses to the allegations levelled against them,
“No suspension because the decision was supposed to have been conducted after the management had considered the responses they were going to give to the allegations.” he said.
Three of the 22 magistrate jugdes were on Friday cleared of any wrong doing after they appeared before the disciplinary committee. A situation, Mr. Ndebugri also cited as giving credence to their appeal “for the right things to be done.”
