The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has said that the appointment of Justice Georgina Wood as Chief Justice was a reward by government for her shoddy investigation into the MV Benjamin cocaine scandal.

Asiedu-Nketia, otherwise referred to as General Mosquito, suggested that there was no doubt the Chief Justice’s appointment was compensation for covering up for the government in the famous investigation.

He has therefore urged Ghanaians to reject claims in government circles that her appointment was because President Kufuor was gender sensitive.

Mrs Wood is the first woman to be appointed to the position in the country.

But according to Asiedu-Nketiah, Justice Georgina Wood’s appointment is just one of the President's usual way of rewarding faithful servants.

He was speaking at the handing over ceremony of the Cape Coast Polytechnic Chapter of the Tertiary Education Network of the National Democratic Congress.

Nana Banyin Brown Addo of Radio Valco who covered the event, quoted Asiedu-Nketiah as saying that before her appointment as Chief Justice, Justice Georgina Wood, then a Supreme Court judge, knew the laws of the land very well but went ahead to accept appointment to chair a lame-duck ministerial committee into the missing 77 parcels of cocaine.

“Don’t be deceived that the appointment of Justice Georgina Wood has anything to do with gender because if NPP government is so minded that we must have a female chief justice, the first opportunity that presented itself was when the Chief Justice died and the most senior Supreme Court Judge who proceeded to become the acting Chief Justice was Justice Bamford Addo."

Asiedu-Nketiah also pointed accusing fingers at the government over its nomination of the Brong Ahafo Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Obriri-Boahene, as Deputy Interior Minister.

He said the same man, a lawyer by profession, defended suspects in the murder of the Ya-Na, and if the government was keen on building peace in the country, it would have had second thoughts about his appointment.

“If this is a security lapse and you want to find out the killers of Ya-Na, then those who were present during the killings, if you go ahead and promote them, what message are you sending to Ghanaians? And those who helped to defend the murders are now being made Ministers of the Interior…”

He said the NDC’s condemnation of MP Ibrahim Tanko’s recent slapping incident against Sampson Ahi in Parliament showed that the NDC does not condone wrong doing and would not shield its members who fouled the law.

Asiedu Nketiah later told Joy New’s Elvis Kwashie that President Kufuor had a track record of employing the punishment and reward scheme and could not therefore claim to be any gender-minded.